All-conquering Shiffrin set for more success as WC returns to Europe

The women's alpine skiing World Cup continues on the weekend at the famous Swiss venue of St Moritz where American Mikaela Shiffrin can further work on her greatness.

The 23-year-old is coming off her first career super-g race in Lake Louise, Canada, which made her the first skier to win a race in all six disciplines in the sport.

Shffrin's 46 top spots overall (34 in slalom, six in giant slalom, three in parallel races and one each in downhill, super-g and combined) put her joint-fourth in the all-time list.

Saturday's super-g and Sunday's parallel slalom give her the chance to move ahead of Austrian Renate Goetschl and further close in on Swiss Vreni Schneider (55 wins), Austrian Annemarie Moser-Proell (62) and team-mate Lindsey Vonn (82).

Given her young age and the fact that she has topped more than 10 races in each of the past two seasons (12 in 2017-18 and and 11 in 2016-17), Shiffrin is also serious contender for the all-time mark of 86 from Swedish icon Ingemar Stenmark, which however Vonn could better in her final full season.

"A lot more can happen, many more records can tumble," German rival Viktoria Rebensburg said.

While the slalom remains the pet discipline for Shiffrin who got her first three wins before the age of 18, she has expanded to the speed events, winning her first downhill last year in Lake Louise and then also conquering a super-g Sunday in what was only her 10th start in the discipline.

"When I was a little girl, I wanted to win every discipline, so this is just a dream come true," Shiffrin said Sunday.

"I figured that at some point in my career I'd be able to win a super-g, but I definitely didn't expect for it to happen this quickly, because there are a lot of things I still need to learn about speed.

"For that to happen at this point in my career, I'm really over the moon about it."

Shiffrin once famously said there are no limits but for now she at least doesn't plan to compete in every speed race.

"This season I’m still going to race just some super-gs ... I have to be in the right mindset, so I plan to ski the super-g in St Moritz, but then it’s up in the air," she said.

Shiffrin competed in only seven speed races in the past season and in three so far in this campaign.

But she has nonetheless claimed the last two overall World Cups, to go with Olympic gold in the 2014 slalom and 2018 giant slalom, plus three straight world titles in the slalom between 2013 and 2017.

Shiffrin - who has by now learnt to deal with pre-race nerves which even prompted her to vomit on several occasions - eyes more silverware this season, in the World Cup and the worlds in February in Are, Sweden, as she is as determined as ever.

"I still have the same motivation that I did seven years ago when I started, and it doesn't really matter how much success I have...I still feel this motivation, like, I'm not finished," she told CNN ahead of the season.