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arn_g t1_jbo55fa wrote

Incredible skier. What a crazy achievement. I can't imagine how much pressure fell off her shoulders today. Looking forward to following her career to 100 wins.

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rutntutn t1_jbo9e81 wrote

She is from an other star! 86 more wins to come!

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tubelesstube t1_jboebk2 wrote

Amazing! What are the odds that she breaks Ingemars record in Sweden? Big respect to Shiffrin.

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the-csquare t1_jbogsn7 wrote

Having her first victory and tying victory both be in Åre is pretty cool

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stargazer2540 t1_jbol256 wrote

WTG GIRL!!! BEEN FOLLOWING HER ALOT...SHES TOTALLY AWESOME 👍💗 SHE STARTED YOUNG TOO!

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ProLicks t1_jbopn9z wrote

Her skill is amazing, and her durability is unrivaled. It’s been a real gift to watch her over the past few years.

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BerriesNCreme t1_jborgkv wrote

I mean it is the pinnacle for her sport…it would be like if people said messi isn’t the GOAT because he hadn’t won a World Cup…which is exactly what people were saying before he won it

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LeBonLapin t1_jborp6j wrote

How many skiing world cups are there? If something happens more than once a year I feel calling it a "world cup" is a little disingenuous.

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m0viestar t1_jbosyt8 wrote

How does one even watch skiing?

Edit: apparent everyone misunderstood this. I was asking where and how do you watch skiing. Streaming? Cable? Etc.

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LeBonLapin t1_jbowruo wrote

Right, but it's not called a "World Cup" when Phelps does it. World Cup in almost all sports the term is used in refers to an event that at most happens annually. Why not call it a gold medal? A blue ribbon? A championship title? World Cup implies world champion and it's sort of weird to potentially crown a new one every 6-8 weeks.

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bbwolff t1_jboxbuw wrote

I usually sit on my couch, sometime I'm standing, lying, waking, riding a bike. I've watched a run out two in my car... . It's more of a tea and coffee event, but it depends, I've seen some with a beer or wine in my hands.then there are times when you go live, when the event is somewhere close. It's important to dress well cause it gets freezing at times. It's more of a beer /cooked wine event in those occasions.

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dnap123 t1_jboylhw wrote

How many world cups are there in a year? 86 is quite a large amount. I guess it must be across multiple events?

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mapoftasmania t1_jboyvmf wrote

The Olympics are a single event. The World Cup requires you to win repeatedly. You don’t understand the sport at all. Probably never even skied.

Lindsay Vonn doesn’t have a high win rate at the Olympics either. Arguably she would still be GOAT if she hadn’t been injured so much.

Julia Mancuso won an Olympic gold. Heard of her? She never won a single World Cup race, medalled just 7 times. Good skier but not even close to GOAT.

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flugsibinator t1_jbozbns wrote

I looked it up because I was confused. She's won 86 races in the World Cup Circuit since she started participating in it. The World Cup Circuit takes place over a number of events with points earned throughout the season. One person wins the World Cup at the end of the season. She has won 5 overall World Cup titles.

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mapoftasmania t1_jbozdpr wrote

Pretty sure she will be the first skier to 100 wins. And that mark may never be seen again, unless they add a lot more races.

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stratoglide t1_jbp0isq wrote

It's called the worldcup because its a competition that takes place across the world. And because thats what FIS decided to call it, it's a points based competition that takes place across the entire year, whoever scores the most points wins the cup, so it's cumulative performance throughout the year.

You can't just be good at one event to win the world cup you need to perform in slalom, giant slalom, super g, downhill and kombi. That's why it's typically a bigger deal than just winning a single race.

What's crazier is you normally start competing in these races at the age of 16 and it costs upwards of 60k a year to participate.

There's the world championships which are held every 2 years and the winter Olympics that are held every 4. Which is more along the lines of what you're thinking

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Markiemark1956 t1_jbp1dnw wrote

Amazing athlete… don’t know why she doesn’t get more pub….she is best ever at her sport and is very gracious with her interviews….Needs to be on SI cover and athlete of the year…

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inventionnerd t1_jbp5nwm wrote

This is more like Nascar. She's won "86 races" and the races per season count towards the year's Nascar Cup series championship. It would be wrong to say Jimmie Johnson won 80 Nascar cup series championships. He won 80 races and 7 championships. She won 86 events in the World Cup. But she only actually has like 5 World cups.

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flossdog t1_jbp7mfv wrote

“world cup victory”, which is per race. This would be analogous to how many matches a country has won in FIFA World Cup.

“world cup title” is per category per year. (she has 15 world cup titles).

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ajkeence99 t1_jbpa4c1 wrote

I think just because it's not necessarily a popular sport. Very rarely have winter sport athletes ever received much publicity. Lindsey Vonn is legitimately the only other strictly winter sport athlete I can name. I remember watching the Olympics and thinking a handful of others were cool in the moment but not enough to remember them.

I just remembered Shaun White as I was about to post.

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ajkeence99 t1_jbpbsxb wrote

I didn't include hockey. I understand that it's on ice but I don't necessarily consider it a winter sport specifically. I also just mean to American's in general.

The reason I clicked here is because there was some sort of debate about sports on another platform and someone said something about Mikaela being the most dominant person in their sport ever. I had never even heard the name Mikaela and still had no clue who they were talking about. Not one other person had a clue who she was either.

I just don't think skiing is really that popular of a sport in the US. It's something I love to do (well, snowboarding) but I don't really catch myself watching it as a sport.

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ajkeence99 t1_jbpc1rz wrote

Names that ring a bell to me but that don't just come to mind when considering the topic. I remember them enough to know, well believe, it was actually Kristi Yamaguchi. Anyway, I made another comment down below about the topic. It's not meant in a disrespectful manner towards her just speaking to my take on the situation as a whole.

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Specter170 t1_jbpglpv wrote

Her troubles at the Olympics behind her, she’s doing awesome. Good for her

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takigruba t1_jbpla1w wrote

Recently heard a rebroadcast of an interview with her from about 10 years ago and she was so funny and humble and engaging. Made me an instant fan.

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arn_g t1_jbpmtnt wrote

There are ~40 world cup races a year across all disciplines.

Shiffrin CAN win in all of them but is top of the sport in Slalom and Giant Slalom, which are about 20 races a season.

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loosterbooster t1_jbpq5t0 wrote

And she's just 27. She could definitely win another 50 races

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Sell_TheKids_ForFood t1_jbpqwdp wrote

I think that's the point. I spent many years as a huge sports fan, and other than hockey players, winter Olympians don't seem to stand out.
This person is the Tiger Woods of skiing, maybe even the Michael Jordan of skiing, and I have never heard her name before and I think that's a shame.

Edit: Maybe that's on me, too. To find these kinds of stories instead of waiting to be fed them.

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JT653 t1_jbps9ra wrote

A big part of this is she has under performed at the Olympics. Winter sport athletes become household names from the Olympics. While she will be older, hopefully she can have one more shot and reverse her Olympics curse which would do so much for her profile.

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NearPup t1_jbpvak4 wrote

Which is kind of crazy because "only" winning two Olympic gold medals as an alpine skier is already a lot. Four is the most anyone has ever won, and she's eighth on the all time list for women (with probably at least two more Olympics left in her). Ingemar Stenmark also "only" has two and many of the all time greats have none.

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NearPup t1_jbpw6e3 wrote

There is one World Cup circuit every year. There is an overall trophy and a trophy for each discipline (type of race).

There is usually between 30 and 35 individual races a year. While Shiffrin is competitive in all events she focuses on the technical events, Slalom and Giant Slalom, which accounts for roughly half the yearly races. Eight of her wins come from speed events (Super-G and Downhill), which constitutes roughly the other half of the races (not counting combines and parallel events, which are not contested very often).

Alpine skiing is a very high variance sport, so when it comes to determining who the best athlete is individual world cup races and overall and discipline season wins are what people use. The "big events" like the Olympics and the World Championships are more prestigious but less of an indicator of who the best athletes are.

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richwhitejr t1_jbpzrs7 wrote

Beautiful woman. G.O.A.T. of skiing! ⛷️

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Apt_5 t1_jbpzveb wrote

Idk if you’re being downvoted b/c that doesn’t happen in this sub so people here haven’t seen it, but I will confirm that I have seen it argued all over reddit too. Especially wrt to sports, I’ve seen it stated as if fact that athletic performance isn’t significantly different between the two.

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Jibjumper t1_jbq5p93 wrote

Which is a 100% justifiable take. For me the reason I clarify it that way is that racing is a discipline of skiing, but being a good racer doesn’t necessarily translate to being a good all around skier. It’s tough because while there are some big mountain events, being the best skier is subjective. In order to be considered in that conversation though you have to prove yourself across several disciplines imo.

For example I know and have skied with some incredible park skiers capable of doing triple corks, that couldn’t ski trees if their life depended on it. Or racers that are comfortable at 70 mph, but couldn’t go off a jump bigger than 10’ without being destroyed. To me skiing is about being able to start at the peak, pick a line, and navigate it all with style. Whether that’s cliffs, groomers, jumps, powder, crud, bumps, trees, and everything in between. That’s where Candide comes in because there’s really no one out there capable of going as big, as fast, and with as much style, on the most diverse terrain possible as he can. He’s the guy that every pro skier in every discipline will stop and say “how the hell did he just do that?”.

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guitarzan212 t1_jbq9dfr wrote

And yet every time I watch her, she’s a giant turd. Suspicious.

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Realistic_Condition7 t1_jbqahun wrote

As someone who doesn’t pay attention to winter sports and only hears (or sometimes watches) about it is when the Winter Olympics are on, I’ve never heard of any of those people.

I’ve heard of Lindsey Vonn though.

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24PercentMajority t1_jbqbfba wrote

Most world cup skiers are going to ski well on terrain that isn't just gates. I'm not talking tricks, but just terrain. There's probably some flat country slalom racers that this doesn't apply to, but racers at this level live on the snow and and good at far more than just skiing gates. Many are capable of laying waste to big mountain, in the off season.

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Jibjumper t1_jbqdpq6 wrote

Oh I’m not denying that, or saying racers can’t ski other terrain. I’ve been skiing since I was 2, grew up 15 minutes from Park City, had friends growing up that were professional skiers/boarders, worked in the industry for 15 years. I’m not trying to be uncle Rico saying I could throw a ball over them mountains. I would say I’m a very competent skier, and because of that I recognize how huge the gap is between what I can do versus a pro.

That doesn’t change the fact that some of the best big mountain skiers could be top competitors in racing if they tried, but doing what Candide does is in a different class. It takes a certain kind of person and skiing is so much more than gates, so I’m not knocking what they do, but race results only mean you’re the best racer.

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elkourinho t1_jbqlk4t wrote

Olympic medals are decided on one race per discipline, globes on like 8 races spread out over a season per discipline. And then there is the overall globe which is the person who gathered the most points overall. In skiing its very hard to be consistent at this level so the globes mean a lot.

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skinte1 t1_jbqw1cu wrote

That's all relative. Stenmark use to win by several seconds in his time because of his superior technique. They even changed the world cup rules because of how superior he was.

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skinte1 t1_jbqwj7l wrote

Stenmark is definitely the GOAT together with Shiffrin. He use to win by several seconds in his time in a sport that is now usually down to hundreds. Thats how dominant he was. They even changed the world cup rules because he won to much.

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skinte1 t1_jbqxqn8 wrote

>This would be analogous to how many matches a country has won in FIFA World Cup.

More like nr of games won in Premier league / La liga etc since it's a "series" over the whole season without playoffs like in the FIFA World Cup. With a big difference ofcourse. A game is only between two teems so your chances of winning is a lot higher than when competing against 100 other ski racers...

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GloomyNathalia t1_jbqy1e8 wrote

So happy to see you so proud and happy after gutting out a hard fought victory on a truly tough discipline.

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skinte1 t1_jbqyv2n wrote

>The only comparison we can make is relative to their peers and by that metric Mikaela is the GOAT.

That would be GOAT together with Stenmark then... He still has as many wins and was arguably even more dominant in his time since he only competed in S and GS meaning he needed fewer events to reach his 86 wins. they even changed the rules because of him since he won the overall cup 3 years in a row despite not competeing in SG and DH...

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loosterbooster t1_jbr4n02 wrote

Agree at this moment Mikaela and Stenmark are basically even. However, Mikaela is only 27 and she will almost certainly win many more races. Also, why is it a bonus for Stenmark that he didn't compete in the speed events? I would suggest that makes Mikaela even more impressive.

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skinte1 t1_jbr8bpm wrote

>Also, why is it a bonus for Stenmark that he didn't compete in the speed events?

Because he had fewer events /tries to reach the same number of wins. As for Super G it didn't even exist until 1982 which was after Stenmarks prime. And parallel slalom, team events and combined weren't counted as WC wins back then but they are now etc. Another comparison is Stenmark has 155 podiums on 231 events and Mikaela has 135 podiums on 244 events.

But as you say Mikaela will probably win a lot more. Maybe even break 100 which would set her apart even from Stenmark.

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BungOnMimosas t1_jbrbd3j wrote

No, I was working at a ski resort when she came for some racing. I didn’t directly interact with her, but plenty of my coworkers did and said she was really rude. Had several people confirm it. This was like 4 years ago now tho

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shoutoutpear t1_jbrm6ga wrote

And Messi is still sitting there with just one… smh

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BM_3K t1_jbrn5sx wrote

One, there's no way to objectively determine who "the best skier" is overall, so it's really just a silly topic. On the flip side racing produces concrete results so deciding who the best ski racer is is a much more manageable thing (you did make a distinction between best skier and best racer here). Second, I really don't think many pro big mountain skiers could switch to racing and be competitive at a pro level. There is so much that goes into technique and skiing in a race course no matter the discipline requires you to be near perfect and then some. I just don't see anyone that hasn't been seriously training in race courses their whole life to stand a chance against pro racers.

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Jibjumper t1_jbrpo0z wrote

So I raced in high school, was on the mogul team, and skied park and big mountain regularly. I never took competition too seriously because I saw the gap between my level and the top .01% and didn’t care enough about those disciplines to push hard in any one direction. I was friends with a lot of skiers that were racers and I worked as a liftee on the night crew at Park City when the racers would do their training. I watched Sarah Burke’s crash that ultimately took her life and called it into ski patrol while working on Three Kings lift. I’ve been surrounded by ski culture my entire life.

Like I said not every all mountain skier could be a racer, but it would be easier for an expert non racer to get into racing, than someone that focused on racing growing up trying to get into big mountain/park skiing. When you know what you’re looking for it’s really easy to pick out who the former racers are from the lift than people with a racing background. Racing requires a different technique that changes your style and it’s hard to break those habits. I personally know people that switched focus to raving later in life and vice versa, and the general consensus from both groups is that it’s harder to unlearn racing than it is to learn.

It makes sense for something like car racing to consider the best driver someone that exceeds in racing (despite there being many types of driving), because cars are more or less designed to operate on a road/track. With skiing it’s different because you have the freedom to go anywhere and do anything. It’s a whole different beast to do things like drop a cliff, straight line a face in Alaska, or have enough control to throw a trick while skiing through trees. It’s much more subjective, but anyone that has some real experience skiing can pick out what a next level skier looks like. Racing still takes a ton of discipline and I’m not diminishing the accomplishment. Like I said being the best racer is just that, being the best racer, but it doesn’t mean they’re the best skier.

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efrylicious t1_jbryvyc wrote

Yeah but she was too scared to race Chris Laker that one time

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Mats56 t1_jbs9pqu wrote

If you see her interviews, follow her on social media or watch the documentaries following her, she comes across as quite nice. Humble and considerate. Quite funny at times.

I'd rather trust that, than some FUD an anonymous redditor has invented.

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metroid02 t1_jbsbfaa wrote

As an Austrian the current season hurts to watch. But what Shiffrin has been doing for the last is simply put amazing. The mental strength and sheer skill the US ladies have been demonstrating for YEARS (lets not forget Vonn) is astounding.

Hats off!

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elkourinho t1_jbsebmi wrote

I was a racer on the verge of Europa cup, no. Hirscher won by seconds in a much more competitive time and age oh and let's not forget the man won so many overalls he just got tired and fucked off still in his prime. And the numbers on their own mean little to me. I'd put Tomba over Ingemar too.

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tcrimms82 t1_jbsjych wrote

No hate, but World Cup just event championship correct? Otherwise Mikaela is at least 500 years old.

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huggles7 t1_jbswvyt wrote

Is she doing everything by Lindsey Vonn couldn’t?

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AJ877 t1_jbt1wfb wrote

> Considering there were alot less races per season during Stenmarks time

That argument doesn't really work when Shiffrin has actually done it in fewer races, and has a higher win percentage than Inge.

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arn_g t1_jbvr5ad wrote

She actually doesn't. 246 starts and 87 victories, vs Stenmarks 230 starts and 86 victories.

That's not to say that her achievement isn't insanely incredible.

PS: Her World Championships stats are slightly better and her Olympic stats slightly worse than Ingemar's.

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AJ877 t1_jbwz1tx wrote

Where do you find the stat about Stenmark's 230 starts? Because commentators yesterday and FIS have been saying that Stenmark had 271 World Cup starts in his career.

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AJ877 t1_jbx0cdh wrote

That's weird, I don't know where did they get 271 then. They showed graphic of win percentage across individual sports, and Stenmark was credited 271 starts.

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funnybalu1 t1_jc1i5gz wrote

Still that's 35 vs 37 percent win rate. Anybody claiming those 2 percent points make any other than a mathematical difference is just a hater. Considering that Shiffrin is likely to keep on winning, she will most certainly go on to pass Stenmark and become the undoubted GOAT. Hard to swallow pills: Women can be crazy good, even the best ever, at sports too and records are still made to be broken, however old they might be.

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