Alpine skiing-American Shiffrin breaks Stenmark's record for slalom wins

Defending slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin claimed her 41st World Cup title in the season opener in Levi, Finland on Saturday, surpassing Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's all-time record tally. American Shiffrin, who came into the second run behind Slovakia's Petra Vlhova, made a flying start and came through a difficult middle section to finish with a time of 58.79 seconds.

Vlhova crashed out early in her second, handing Shiffrin victory. "I feel a little bit lucky with this win, but I also feel good with my skiing so I'm happy," double Olympic champion Shiffrin said.

Shiffrin eclipsed a 32-year-old mark set by Stenmark, who won 40 slaloms between 1974 and 1987. Swiss Wendy Holdener finished runner-up with the second-best time of the second run and an overall time of 1:59:35.

Austrian Katharina Truppe came third to claim her first career World Cup podium finish.