'Spectacular' Shiffrin equals Stenmark's all-time ski record
Shiffrin finished 0.64 seconds ahead of the Italian Federica Brignone to match the milestone that has stood for 34 years.
A few days shy of her 28th birthday her exceptional run continued with her 12th World Cup win after securing a fifth overall crystal globe last weekend.
She has a shot at claiming the record outright in Saturday's slalom at the Swedish ski station where fittingly she had opened her World Cup account back in 2012 as a 17-year-old.
Are also happens to be Stenmark's own home turf.
"His (Stenmark) legacy is synonymous with ski racing," said Shiffrin.
"If anyone knows anything about ski racing at all and even if they don't, they know Ingemar Stenmark. I don't think that will ever pass. He set the standard for what ski racing has become."
For Stenmark there was no comparison, declaring: "She's much better than I was.
"She has everything. She has good physical strength. she has a good technique, strong head. I think it's the combination of everything makes her so good."
Shiffrin said being asked all the time "when I'm going to win 86 or 87, that's a pretty cool place to be, even though it can be difficult to focus sometimes, but today I felt like the focus was there when I needed it to be.
"It was really fun to ski and that is how I hope it would be.”
"This is a spectacular day. It’s amazing, incredible," added the Colorado-born skier.
The US ski superstar had set herself up for this record-levelling performance after dominating the first leg of Friday's race.
She went into the second run holding a 0.58 seconds advantage over Canada's Valerie Grenier.
Franziska Gritsch was placed third at 0.93 with the rest of her rivals over one second adrift.
'Fight for it'
Shiffrin cemented the deal with a combined time of one minute 54.64 seconds to beat Brignone with Swede Sara Hector in third at 0.92 seconds.
To add further lustre to an extraordinary day she clinched the giant slalom crystal globe.
"I knew the (giant) globe was locked in before the second run, I just wanted to fight for it.
"I was also lucky with the weather and the light on my first run."
One of the dangers between Shiffrin and history was Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, who failed to finish the first run. Gritsch crashed out in the second run.
This was her third shot at drawing level with Stenmark, after moving to just one away from the benchmark set in 1989 with her 85th win in the slalom at Spindleruv Mlyn last month.
Like Shiffrin, Stenmark relished the slalom and giant slalom with the Swede dominating the two disciplines from 1975 before retiring in 1989.
But over the years she has developed into a skier for all disciplines with her World Cup haul comprising 52 in slalom, 20 in giant slalom, five in super-G, three in downhill, five in parallel slalom and one combined.
Shiffrin arrived at Are on the back of the world championships in France where she won gold in both the giant slalom and super-G and silver in the slalom.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist was assured of winning a fifth overall World Cup title last weekend at Kvitfjell.
One of her greatest admirers, Stenmark himself, told AFP this week that he believed Shiffrin had years of success ahead of her.
"That's what I thought four years ago, that she would be the first to win 100 races. And I think she can do even more, if she stays healthy," said the Swedish ski legend.
