Tina's unrivalled winter

17 March 2013 lifted Tina Maze up. Not just into the limelight, but to the very top of the Ski World Cup. In Lenzerheide in Switzerland, she took victory in the giant slalom, the very last race of the winter, taking her points record to 2414. No woman or man has ever surpassed this mark before or since. Maze achieved this with eleven race victories in the winter of 2012/13 and also stood on the podium a further 13 times.

In the years before that, she had finished fourth, third and second - always beaten by Lindsey Vonn or Maria Höfl-Riesch. ‘I spent so many years working towards the big shot,’ Maze recalls in an interview. ‘I just had to get it right. Otherwise I would never have been satisfied.’ Maze knows: To beat Vonn, she needs around 2000 points, only then would she have a chance. ‘I really wanted to beat her once, be at my maximum for a season, give everything. This season was my maximum.’ The Slovenian virtually demolished the competition, finishing 1313 points ahead of second-placed Maria Höfl-Riesch. And she also achieved something very special: she celebrated victories in all five disciplines this season. Only Janica Kostelic, Petra Kronberger and Marc Girardelli had managed that before her.

Tina Maze, double Olympic champion in downhill and giant slalom in Sochi 2014 and four-time world champion, will not be able to remember all her triumphs. But she will probably remember her points record forever. Because it has also become part of her signature: ‘Tina Maze 2414’