Shiffrin can nearly taste historic sweep with success in Bansko
BySportsbeat
Published 26/01/2020 at 17:14 GMT
Finding ways to win is Mikaela Shiffrin's speciality and she revelled in the scent of a historic World Cup clean sweep after Super-G success in Bansko, Bulgaria.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Shiffrin's second-ever downhill World Cup win was followed two days later by top step in Super-G, a mastery of speed disciplines that could pave the way for yet another spot in the record books.
The American is now a combined win away from becoming the fifth skier in history to triumph in all five Alpine Skiing World Cup disciplines in one season.
"It was a perfect weekend for me," said the 24-year-old.
"The whole team is excited about the whole weekend, but especially today.
"The thing that I'm most proud of right now is that I know how to win in slalom, [giant slalom], super-G and downhill, which I never expected that would really happen."
The four skiers to have pulled off wins in five disciplines inside a season are Luxembourg's Marc Girardelli, Austria's Petra Kronberger, Croatia's Janica Kostelic and Slovania's Tina Maze.
Her next opportunity to join that company comes at Crans-Montana, Switzerland on 23 February.
It was green lights all the way down a challenging course for Shiffrin, who had a 0.32 lead down the first section and largely held it with a 1:10.88 clocking.
It was Shiffrin's 66th win on the World Cup circuit, meaning she's one win away from leapfrogging none other than Marcel Hirscher into third all-time.
The pair of wins in Bulgaria were her first successes of 2020 and quashed talk of a mini-crisis in the Shiffrin camp – she holds the super-G leaders jersey and a 370-point lead in the overall.
Italy's Marta Bassino was 0.29 back with a second silver medal inside 48 hours, while Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami finished on the podium for the first time in a year.
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