The greatest Alpine ski racer of all time has returned victorious to the World Cup Tour in the final weeks of the 23-24 season, seven weeks after she was sidelined by an injury sustained whilst racing in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
Racing in the slalom at Are in Sweden, Mikaela Shiffrin, who turns 29 this week, won her 96th World Cup race at the same resort where she won her first ever World cup at age 17 in December 2012. This was her 59th slalom win.
Shiffrin's 96th win also scored her enough points to secure her eighth slalom crystal globe, although the seven week lay-off means it's now almost statistically impossible for her to overtake Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami, who is nearly 350 points ahead of Shiffrin and nearly 300 ahead of second—placed Fredrica Brignone with just a few races left to be run.
It's a year this month since Shiffrin won her 87th World Cup race, also at Are, overtaking Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark's near three-decade old record of 86 wins. Her eight slalom Crystal globe equals another record held by Stenmark.
Image credit: Erich Spiess / ASP / Red Bull Content Pool