Mikaela Shiffrin’s Record-Breaking Season: In Film and Stats

March 31, 2019March 31, 2019 Lisa Lynn 3562 Views Mikaela Shiffrin

It’s hard to fully comprehend just what kind of a season Mikaela Shiffrin had. The 24-year-old who graduated from Vermont’s Burke Mountain Academy in 2013, set a number of records this season. She blew past Vreni Schneider’s record of 14 World Cup wins in a season in early March and then went on to rack up two more wins for a new record of 17 in a season. To put that in perspective, Shiffrin won every World Cup or World Championship slalom race she entered but one, where she finished second.

Shiffrin seems to have surprised even herself. After winning the overall title for giant slalom, she had this to say:

“It feels like I’ve been dreaming about the giant-slalom globe for so long since before I was on the World Cup,” Shiffrin said on FIS’ Soundcloud. “… The slalom globe came, I don’t know how many times (six), but the GS globe was always something I was always working for but was never really able to be the really best GS skier. There was always somebody who was faster, somebody who was taking more risks, somebody who was better on their skis. There were many moments (during) the last eight years that I was thinking I would never get this GS globe, so there were a lot of emotions celebrating that.”

And that’s not all. Consider these stats and her four crystal globes:

Captured the overall World Cup titles, winning the overall crystal globe for most points, earning 2,204 points on the season, second all-time only to Slovenia’s Tina Maze’s legendary season of 2,414 points in 2012-13.

Won the overall World Cup title in three disciplines: Slalom, GS and Super G.

Won her sixth slalom overall crystal globe in her seventh year of competing.

Won 20 of the 34 World Cup or World Championship races she entered this season and podiumed in 28 of those.

She had her 60th career win and is fifth in all-time World Cup wins— 26 wins behind Ingemar Stenmark and 22 behind Lindsay Vonn.

Became the first ski racer to earn $1 million in prize money in a season.

If you can’t stop watching Mikaela Shifrrin race, you are not alone. The Mikaela Shiffrin Fan Club has more than 40,000 fans on Facebook and just released this amazing mash-up with footage of her greatest races from this season, and earlier ones, brilliantly cut and edited with music that ranges from classical to hip hop — and just seems to work with the race at hand.