Mikaela Shiffrin extends record run as Marcel Hirscher hints at retirement

CNN  — 

She’s ski racing’s undoubted new queen, but Mikaela Shiffrin finished the slalom season in regal fashion with victory in the final race in Andorra.

The 24-year-old clinched her 16th win of a record-breaking season Saturday to take her tally to 59 World Cup titles overall.

The victory was also her 40th slalom win to equal the record of Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, who heads the all-time list with 86 World Cup wins.

Overall champion Shiffrin, who topped the slalom standings from Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova and Swiss Wendy Holdener, is hot favorite to clinch the giant slalom crystal globe Sunday.

The American has a 97-point lead over Vlhova, with 100 points available to the winner in Andorra.

Shiffrin, who passed Vreni Schneider’s mark of 14 wins in a season earlier this month, could become the first skier – male or female – to win the World Cup title in overall, slalom, giant slalom and the faster super-G discipline in the same season.

Mikaela Shiffrin is growing into one of the most dominant and influential female sports stars on the planet, but she knows that her success in ski racing comes at a price – abusive comments on social media.

READ: Marcel Hirscher: Ski racing’s greatest of all time?