American Mikaela Shiffrin took home gold Saturday in the women鈥檚 slalom at the FIS Alpine World Championships in Are, Sweden, becoming the first skier in history to win four straight world titles in the same discipline.
She finished聽almost a second ahead of Anna Swenn Larsson聽from Sweden, who took silver.聽Petra Vlhova from Slovakia came in third.
Shiffrin had been sharing the record of three-straight wins with Swedish skier Ingenmar Stenmark and Americans Ted Ligety and Bode Miller. The only athlete to hold four gold medals (non-consecutive) in a single event is Christl Cranz, a German skier who competed in the 1930s.
The World Championships, held biannually, are just one part of the broader international alpine skiing circuit鈥攚hich the 23-year-old phenom from Vail, Colorado, has dominated for the last several years, quietly closing in on many of the most notable records. Currently, Shiffrin has 56 overall World Cup victories, which is a far cry from Ingenmar Stenmark鈥檚 record 86, and Lindsey Vonn鈥檚 82. But Vonn鈥檚 career spanned two decades while Shiffrin has been competing for just nine years.
Shiffrin kicked off the 2019 World Championships with a first place in the super-G event on Tuesday, the first day of competition, followed by a third place in giant slalom on Thursday.
After racing with a cold, Shiffrin聽said,聽鈥淗alfway down this run I ran out of oxygen,鈥 , 鈥淚 was just trying to fight to stay on the course.鈥