"Mental and physical strength at its finest";"The Queen had never left" - Fans react to Mikaela Shiffrin notching 96th World Cup win on comeback

Mikaela Shiffrin dominated the snowy slopes in Are, Sweden, marking a grand return to skiing after six weeks of rehab. While securing the 96th victory of her exemplary World Cup career, she also won a record-tying 8th slalom title.

Shiffrin made a great start to her first run in Are and led the standings with a fine margin of 0.02 seconds over Switzerland's Michelle Gisin. Shiffrin said that Gisin was 'pushing really hard' in the first run but in the second run, the former handled it better.

And the 2nd run granted her another piece of history. The Olympic Champion won the slalom event with a margin of 1.24 seconds over Croatia's Zrinka Ljutic, who placed 3rd after the first run. The win also guaranteed Mikaela Shiffrin her 8th slalom Crystal Globe title, which is a record-tying one.

While Shiffrin expressed gratitude over being able to race again, the internet was left awestruck by the alpine skiing queen's 'mental strength' of being able to make a comeback from adversity. After the US Ski Team congratulated the legend on X (formerly Twitter), one of the fans admiring her wrote:

"Are (play on words) you kidding me? I’m just shocked after the major knee injury she had! Mental and physical strength at its finest!"

Another fan noted that Mikaela Shiffrin made a comeback as if she had never left.

"Congrats Mikaela fir the race. The Queen had never left. Exceptional mental strength. Jazda Mika," they wrote.

Here are more some reactions:

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Mikaela Shiffrin grateful for comeback

Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup - Mikaela Shiffrin grateful to race again

Mikaela Shiffrin was on course to win a record-tying 6th overall World Cup title in January until an unfortunate crash in Italy. She suffered an MCL injury that would see her miss the next 11 races, ending her chances of winning the overall title. But for now, she is happy to make it back to the slopes.

"It’s pretty special. I’ve been lucky to be able to race again this season and I’m really soaking it in. I am enjoying being back and my knee is holding up, it’s doing good work for me," Shiffrin told Austrian broadcaster ORF.

Speaking about the race with FIS, Shiffrin revealed that she was pushing it too hard during the first run. However, she soon made amends in the second run, and the improvement was evident.

"The first run, I was pushing really hard but sometimes I wasn’t keeping up with the pace of the course," Shiffrin said. "My skill level, I wasn’t able to handle the course in the same way that I could handle this [second] one."