Mikaela Shiffrin wins the World Cup and is waiting for the 86th win

KVITFJELL, Norway — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin has achieved what she describes as “the big, big goal for me this season.”

But it was not the record-breaking 86th victory of his career.

Shiffrin claimed her fifth World Cup title, widely seen as the biggest prize in ski racing, on Saturday, with a tie for fifth in the downhill.

“This is really cool [overall title] “It was like a big, big goal for me this season,” Shiffrin said. “I had so much focus on it that I would talk about it in interviews at the start of the season. I usually don’t talk about it much because it takes a long time to see if you can do it.”

The American’s pursuit of another race win has been extended for at least one more day, as she was due to compete in the Super-G on Sunday.

Shiffrin needs one win to match Ingemar Stenmark’s total on the men’s or women’s all-time winners list. Shiffrin broke the tie on the all-time women’s list with former American teammate Lindsey Vonn in January. Vonn had 82 wins when she retired in 2019.

Saturday’s race was won by home favorite Kajsa Vikhov Lee, who became the first Norwegian woman to win a downhill race in the 56-year history of World Cup skiing.

“We are used to it [Norwegian] “Guys win downhill,” he told me, “so I didn’t know that until before this season.” For me, I wanted to win in the downhill. This was my dream. It’s always been my dream to have a home run, to have everyone here. I wanted to make them an offer.”

Sofia Goggia finished second, 0.29 seconds behind, as the Italian clinched the all-season downhill title once again.

“I feel great. I mean, it’s my fourth world downhill, third in a row. I’m really happy about it,” Joggia said. “But I’m not very happy with today’s performance. I didn’t skate very well, I wasn’t as smooth as in training.”

Olympic champion Corinne Suter and former two-time world champion Elka Stohk finished third and fourth.

Shiffrin and Austrian skier Ramona Sippenhofer both finished 0.79 seconds behind Lee.

The result was enough for Shivrin to extend his lead in the overall standings to 796 points with seven races remaining. Her sole competitor on the globe, former two-time overall champion Lara Gut Behrami, finished 21st.

“It’s pretty wild actually. The overall title, or any season, is always weird to explain how you feel on the day you win a race when you don’t,” Shiffrin said.

“I think people find it exciting when there is a battle until the final race,” she added. “But there’s so much left in this season, and it’s been pretty amazing, so for me it’s great to actually have it now. I can take a little bit off my shoulder.”

Shiffrin won the overall title three years in a row from 2017 to 2019 and again last year. She moved into exactly second place on the all-time women’s titles list, one behind the six won by Anne-Marie Moser-Breuil in the 1970s.

The overall record is held by another Austrian great, Marcel Hirscher, who won it for eight consecutive seasons from 2012 to 2019.

Her overall championship came five weeks after Shiffrin clinched the season’s slalom title for the seventh time.

When asked in a post-race TV interview what her remaining goals for the season were, Shiffrin did not mention Stenmark’s record.

“If I had one last wish for this season, I would probably wish for a lot more, but the GS world would be like, yeah…,” Shiffrin said. “Then I can be very satisfied with the season.”

Shiffrin holds a 118-point lead in the giant slalom standings with two races remaining.

The race at Olympia Bakken, an annual men’s track but which hosted women’s races for the first time in 20 years, took place in sunny conditions, but strong winds affected the race.

The organizers decided to adapt the track and override Rossi’s jump, which was deemed too dangerous after the skaters there had jumped up to 50 yards during practice.

Cornelia Hetter, who won Super G on Friday, lost her balance and ran off the track midway through but avoided injury.