Shiffrin Schusses to Sixth Championship
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin
© Stefan Holm, Shutterstock
March is Women’s History Month, an annual observance of women’s achievements and contributions to society. This month, Behind the Headlines will feature woman pioneers in a variety of areas.
Last month, on February 15, the champion American alpine (downhill) skier Mikaela Shiffrin won her sixth combined World Championship. A combined competition consists of a downhill race and a slalom. (In a slalom, the skier must pass through marked gates in a zigzag fashion.) Shiffrin has won more world championship titles than any other American skier.
Shiffrin won the slalom gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, becoming the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history. In 2018, she won the giant slalom gold medal and the combined silver medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She also won the slalom World Championship in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019 and the super G (once called the super giant slalom) World Championship in 2019.
The slalom and the super G are two of the skiing races that make up the alpine World Cup. The cup is awarded annually to the men and women who have won the most points in a series of five races—the slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super G, and combined. Shiffrin initially concentrated on the slalom and giant slalom. She won the World Cup slalom title in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, and 2019. In 2019, she also won the World Cup giant slalom title. In 2016, she began competing in the other three World Cup events. Shiffrin won the World Cup super G title in 2019. She won the overall World Cup title in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for earning the most combined points in all the events. In 2018, Shiffrin won her 36th slalom race, breaking the record of 35 victories held by the Austrian skier Marlies Schild.
Shiffrin was born on March 13, 1995, in Vail, Colorado. She began skiing at the age of three. Her family moved to New Hampshire when she was eight. Shiffrin graduated in 2013 from Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, a high school for young skiers. In 2011, she made her World Cup debut at the age of 15, winning the bronze medal at Lienz, Austria. Later that year, at the age of 16, she won the slalom title at the United States National Championships in Winter Park, Colorado. She thus became the youngest skier to win that event. In 2012, she won her first World Cup race and was named World Cup Rookie of the Year.
