(Photo credit: Lisi Niesner/Reuters via Imagn Images)

Mikaela Shiffrin won her milestone 100th Alpine skiing World Cup race on Sunday, just weeks after returning from a major injury.

Her record-extending victory came in the slalom, 61 hundredths of a second over Zrinka Ljutic of Crotia in Sestriere, Italy. Paula Moltzan of Minnesota took third.

'My feeling is blank a little bit,' Shiffrin told reporters after the race. 'It's overwhelming. It's too hard to find thoughts for it. But that's also a very peaceful moment because normally I'm only thinking. So sometimes it's nice to have a moment where I can't think.'

Shiffrin, 29, won in just her sixth race since returning following a crash Nov. 30 in a giant slalom run in Killington, Vt., that left her with a stab wound in her oblique muscle that required surgery.

'I have wondered in the last weeks so many times whether it is the right thing to come back,' she said. 'We didn't take the easy way, that's for sure, but in the end, in order to keep moving forward and to finish this recovery, I have to be in start gate, and I have to experience these emotions when they're good and when they're bad. That's really important. Today was just an amazing day in the middle of some really tough months, but I'm very thankful for this day.'

On Sunday, Shiffrin built a lead of nine hundredths of a second over Ljutic after the first run. In the second run she ran fourth-fastest, and the combined times were good enough for win No. 100.

'It's a small moment in the middle of many tough moments that makes me feel that maybe I can be good again,' she said.

In March 2023, Shiffrin broke Ingemar Stenmark's Alpine record of 86 World Cup wins.

--Field Level Media