ŠPINDLERŮV MLÝN, Czechia — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin dominated a slalom Saturday for her 85th career victory to move within one of the World Cup record set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1980s.
Shiffrin can match the best mark of 86 wins in another slalom Sunday.
Shiffrin had shared the women’s record of 82 wins with former teammate Lindsey Vonn before triumphing at back-to-back giant slaloms in Italy this week and adding a third straight win Saturday.
The American overcame a mistake early in her second run as she posted the fastest times in both legs to beat Germany's Lena Dürr of Germany by 0.60 seconds.
“I knew it would take some risk and there's a chance that I don't finish at all, but I have to do my best turns to have a chance because these women are so strong,” said Shiffrin, who raced at the resort near the Czech-Polish border where she had her World Cup debut as a 15-year-old almost 12 years ago.
Swiss skier Wendy Holdener was 1.31 behind in third, followed by Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhová of Slovakia in fourth and Shiffrin's American teammate Paula Moltzan in fifth.
Shiffrin has won five of the eight slaloms this season and extended her lead in the discipline standings over Holdener to 175 points. She could wrap up the title if she leads by at least 200 points after Sunday's race.
Overall, the American has won 11 races this season. Only twice in her career has she won more races in a single season: 12 in 2017-18 and a record 17 in 2018-19.