“There is [been] there’s a lot of talk about the record and if it happens today or tomorrow or the day after,” Shiffrin, 27, said last week. “… I try to push the right way and ski the right way every day.”
Shiffrin entered the season with 74 World Championship victories, having won his first World Championship at Are in December 2012. Last weekend, he won his fifth overall World Cup title, awarded annually to the skier with the most points during the season.
“At the beginning of the season, I didn’t think I would get close to that number of 86 [this year]so my goal was the whole globe,” he said.
Stenmark, 66, described Shiffrin as a “much better” skier than him.
“You can’t compare,” he told The Associated Press recently. “It has everything. He has good physical strength, good technique, strong head. I think that’s what makes it so good. I was impressed by how well he skied in both slalom, super-G and downhill. I could never have been this good in all subjects.”
All 86 of Stenmark’s victories came in slalom (40) or giant slalom (46); Shiffrin’s 87 wins are in slalom (53), giant slalom (20) or parallel (five), super-G (five), downhill (three) and mixed (one).
Stenmark said he planned to watch the race in Are from his home outside Stockholm rather than attend in person.
“Of course I watch on TV,” said Stenmark, “It would be strange for me to go to Are to celebrate Shiffrin when the Swedish girls are there. It would be easier if it were somewhere else.”
