Mikaela Shiffrin gets her record 86th World Cup victory

ARE, Sweden (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin made a strong start in her pursuit of a record-tying 86th World Cup victory on Friday by taking a big lead in the first run of a giant slalom.

Shiffrin was more than half a second faster than her highest-ranked rivals with a smooth and fluent run in the sunshine at the lakeside resort in Are.

The second run is later Friday.

Clearly pleased with her skiing in the opening run, Shiffrin smiled and said “yeah” to herself after seeing her time in the finish area.

“It’s one of the few runs in my life where, while I was skiing it, I was thinking, ‘This is good,’” Shiffrin told Swedish broadcaster TV6.

The 27-year-old American can move even with Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark with a victory. Stenmark won a record 86 World Cup races in the 1970s and 80s.

“I’m trying to block it out of my mind actually,” Shiffrin said of the record, adding her target for the second run is “to bring it back to that gear and have another really good run.”

Valerie Grenier, whose first World Cup victory in January ended Shiffrin’s winning streak in giant slalom, was 0.58 seconds back in second. Franziska Gritsch was third fastest with 0.93 to make up in the afternoon run. All other racers trailed Shiffrin by more than a second.

Shiffrin can equal another record with a victory Friday. It would be her 20th career win in World Cup giant slaloms – six of them this season – matching the women’s mark held by Vreni Schneider.

Schneider got her wins between 1984 and 1992. The Swiss racer, like Shiffrin, also has Olympic and world championship gold medals in both giant slalom and slalom.

Shiffrin also will clinch the season-long World Cup giant slalom title with a top-three finish on Friday. Her closest challenger, Lara Gut-Behrami, failed to finish the first run.

Shiffrin already is sure to win the overall and slalom titles this season, and a giant slalom title would secure her 15th career crystal globe trophy.

Shiffrin won her first World Cup race in Are, a slalom in December 2012, and then earned two gold medals at the 2019 worlds at the Swedish resort. It was also where she was due to race again in March 2020 after the death of her father the previous month, but the races were called off because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I’ve had quite a few different experiences here,” Shiffrin said. “I have felt everything you can feel here so it’s special to be back.”