Mikaela Shiffrin scores another milestone in dead-heat win

It was a dead heat with her nearest rival, but Mikaela Shiffrin continued her assault on the record books by joining Swiss great Vreni Schneider in third on the all-time list of women’s World Cup winners.

Shiffrin and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova were inseparable over two runs of a foggy giant slalom in Maribor, Slovenia to hand the American her 12th win of a record-breaking season.

The victory – also Vlhova’s fourth this term – took Shiffrin’s overall tally to 55 World Cup wins alongside Schneider, with Austria’s Annemarie Moser Proell (62) in second behind retiring American Lindsey Vonn (82).

Shiffrin and Vlhova clocked a time of two minutes 31.31 seconds to beat Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel by 0.93 secs.

The 23-year-old Shiffrin was 0.48 secs quicker than Vlhova on the first run, but made a mistake on the lower part of the course in run two to slip back into a tie.

“It was a fight in the second, I almost lost it at the bottom so it’s always nice when you have this luck,” Shiffrin told FIS Alpine.

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American skier Mikaela Shiffrin is arguably the most dominant athlete in sport right now. The 24-year-old has taken skiing by storm, winning 17 World Cup races across four of the six disciplines last season to take her overall tally to 60 victories. Here's a look back at her short but sweet career so far.

2011 —

Shiffrin grew up skiing from an early age thanks to parents who were both competitive college skiers. She rose quickly through the junior ranks and joined the World Cup circuit two days before her 16th birthday in 2011.

2011 —

The American (right) secured her first World Cup medal in December 2011, winning a bronze in the slalom. Her potential didn't go unnoticed as she was named rookie of the year.

2012 —

Shiffrin lived up to her hype during the following season, winning her first World Cup slalom event in Lienz, Austria.

2013 —

The youngster continued her good form, winning a further three World Cup slalom races that season. She also struck slalom gold at the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Austria.

2013 —

She ended a remarkable season with a first World Cup slalom crown, which she defended the following year.

2014 —

As world champion, the pressure was on the 18-year-old to perform at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. She didn't disappoint. Shiffrin became the youngest ever Olympic slalom champion and the first American to win the title in 42 years.

2015 —

Following her Olympic success, the American won her third straight World Cup slalom crown in 2015. She also defended her slalom title at the 2015 World Championships.

2016 —

A knee injury stalled her career the following season and she had to settle for fourth in the slalom standings.

2017 —

Shiffrin was back to her best in 2017, though, winning a fifth slalom World Cup title and adding a third World Championship gold. She also won her first overall World Cup title.

2018 —

As her reputation grew, so did her popularity and all eyes were on Shiffrin to perform at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She was affected by the weather-hit schedule and despite winning gold in the giant slalom and silver in the combined she missed out completely in slalom. But she won the World Cup overall and slalom titles again at the end of the season to confirm her status as America's new superstar.

Shiffrin has been on fire during the 2018-19 season and has made waves beyond ski racing for her level of consistency and domination. She has climbed to fifth on the list off all-time most successful ski racers, and third woman behind Lindsey Vonn and Annemarie Moser-Proll.

At the 2019 FIS World Championships in Are, Sweden she struck in the opening super-G race to score her fourth world title.

And she clinched a remarkable fourth straight slalom world title -- a streak stretching back to 2013 -- to go with a bronze in the giant slalom in Sweden.

Following the World Championships, Shiffrin won a World Cup slalom event in Stockholm to score a record-equaling 14th title of the season. She also wrapped up a third straight season slalom crown and sixth in seven years. She clinched a third straight overall crown when racing was canceled in Sochi.

Soon after she pushed the record to 15 wins - unprecedented for men or women -- with a slalom victory (her 58th) in the Czech Republic.

At the World Cup finals in Soldeu, Andorra in March, Shiffrin wrapped up a third Crystal Globe of 2019 with a first season title in the super-G.

Mikaela Shiffrin: The most dominant sportswoman on the planet?

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This season, Shiffrin has become the first skier – male or female – to have won 15 races in a calendar year.

And she is now three wins short of the record of the most wins in a single season – Schneider won an unprecedented 14 races in 1988-89.

Shiffrin is bidding for a third straight World Cup overall title and leads Vlhova by nearly 600 points in the season standings.

She is also chasing a fourth straight slalom world title at the World Championships in Are, Sweden later in February.

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The 23-year-old Vlhova has pushed Shiffrin hard this season, but has ended as runner-up six times.

“All the time we are really close but today we can share first place so I’m happy,” Vlhova told FIS Alpine.

Dead heats are rare but not exceptional in skiing. At the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, Slovenia’s Tina Maze and Swiss Dominque Gisin shared downhill gold after clocking the same times.