Mikaela Shiffrin ties Ingemar Stenmark with 86th World Cup win

ARE, Sweden — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won her record-tying 86th World Cup race Friday with victory in a giant slalom.

Shiffrin's win matched the overall record set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark 34 years ago.

The 27-year-old American protected her half-second lead from the first run and finished 0.64 seconds ahead of Federica Brignone.

Shiffrin crossed the finish line and put her hands to her helmet then to her face and shook her head slowly while taking in the enormity of her achievement.

«This is just a spectacular day. Oh my goodness,» she said in a courseside interview.

Stenmark had told The Associated Press last month that Shiffrin is «much better than I was» and that he believed she could win more than 100 races.

Shiffrin needed 11 years, 11 months, 27 days after her first top-level race on March 11, 2011, to get the record. It took Stenmark 15 years, 2 months, 11 days between his World Cup debut in December 1973 and his final win in February 1989.

According to official statistics, Stenmark made 230 World Cup starts to get his 86 wins, while Shiffrin has 245. However, the database of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation is lacking information from some events in Stenmark's era because skiers who competed in races but failed to score World Cup points have not been registered.

Mikaela Shiffrin is only 27 years old, and she's already the GOAT. Her dominance of alpine skiing is in the same category as Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, and Serena Williams… and she has an opportunity to further build on her legacy this weekend by surpassing the 34-year-old record for wins held by Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark in his home country. Listen now!

Friday was Shiffrin's fourth straight wire-to-wire win in World