Mikaela Shiffrin of the U.S. scored a record-extending 92nd career Alpine Ski World Cup win with her first giant slalom victory of the season in Lienz, Austria, on Thursday.
Shiffrin had a commanding lead after her first run down the icy piste and then played it safe on the second to beat Italian Federica Brignone by 0.38 seconds, followed by Sweden's Olympic giant slalom champion Sara Hector.
The victory, in the final giant of 2023, was Shiffrin's first in five giant slaloms so far this season and the 22nd of her career in the technical discipline.
File photo of Mikaela Shiffrin. /CFP
"My big, big goal right now is to close the gap on the GS standings so I was like 'now I want to win it but I really don't want to mess it up'," she said. "I really wanted to push on the second run, a couple of small errors, nothing big, but I am happy with the skiing anyway," she added.
Shiffrin won seven giant slaloms last season on her way to the World Cup title but her first of that campaign also came on the same day a year ago.
"When you miss a win for so long in the season it's easy to be like 'I am doing things wrong'," she said. "But tactically the season is a marathon not a sprint."
Shiffrin leads Brignone in the overall standings by 163 points but is third in the giant slalom rankings, 80 behind the Italian and 45 behind Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami.
A slalom is scheduled in Lienz on Friday, with Shiffrin the favorite to extend her tally to 93 wins.
(With input from Reuters)