Alpine skiing-Shiffrin says her happiness not linked to Stenmark record chase

(Reuters) - Mikaela Shiffrin said on Thursday that while surpassing Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's World Cup wins record would undoubtedly be a career highlight it is not something she must accomplish in order to feel content whenever she retires from the sport.

The 27-year-old Shiffrin, who will kick off her season this weekend in Soelden, Austria, is eight World Cup wins away from tying the women's record held by Lindsey Vonn and 12 shy of matching Stenmark's overall mark of 86.

Shiffrin, speaking to reporters during a video call from Soelden, said her retirement decision will be tied to whether she has the physical and mental energy to keep pushing rather than whether she has surpassed Stenmark's record.

"Let's flash forward to whatever point, the end of my career, and say that I have accomplished that record, if that were to happen at that point in time I would probably rank it pretty high," Shiffrin said.

"It would have meant that I was consistently at the top and successful throughout my entire career, throughout multiple generations of athletes, despite injuries, despite some very traumatic experiences.

"But let's say, just coming back to where we are now, I do not feel like I have to achieve that record in order to feel comfortable retiring.

"I feel retirement is fully based off of just how i feel when I am skiing. ... To be honest, it could be tomorrow and I'm already comfortable with what I've accomplished."

Shiffrin triumphed at Soelden last season but has tempered expectations ahead of Saturday's giant slalom and, after having around 10 days of preparation since arriving in Europe, admitted to feeling pre-race jitters.

Still, despite not having what she felt was an ideal build-up to Soelden, the reigning overall