(Reuters) – American skier Mikaela Shiffrin was poised to take a record 83rd women’s World Cup win on Tuesday after setting the fastest time in the first leg of a giant slalom in the Italian resort of Kronplatz.
The four-times overall World Cup champion clocked a time of 58.72 seconds down the Erta slope with Swiss rival and reigning giant slalom world champion Lara Gut-Behrami in second place and 0.13 behind.
Italian Federica Brignone was third, 0.27 slower than Shiffrin.
Shiffrin, 27, is level with retired compatriot Lindsey Vonn on 82 wins.
Swedish men’s slalom great Ingemar Stenmark holds the absolute record of 86 World Cup victories — all in slalom or giant slalom — in the 1970s and 1980s.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Christian Radnedge)
