The season-opening women’s giant slalom will offer the 28-year-old American, who has two Olympic and seven world titles to her name so far, the chance to make another entry into the history books by matching the figure of six overall women’s World Cup titles earned by Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll, the last of which came in 1978-1979.

Meanwhile the men’s overall World Cup champion, 26-year-old Marco Odermatt of Switzerland, has set himself the huge task of bettering his achievement of last season, when he set a men’s record points total of 2,042 - a task which will start with the men’s giant slalom in Sölden on Sunday (October 29).

Looking ahead to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) 2023-2024 World Cup season, in what is the organisation's 100th anniversary year, Shiffrin - who passed Ingemar Stenmark's longstanding record of 86 World Cup wins shortly before the end of last season -  told CBS Sports that she feels more prepared going into tomorrow’s race than she did at this time last year.

But she added that last season, when she achieved her second-best World Cup total of 14 wins, she did not peak in the giant slalom discipline until late December or January.

"I’m trying to take a little bit more of an approach of giving myself time to build into my best form," said the resident of Vail, Colorado who has been in Europe for three weeks preparing for a season that does not have a World Championships or Winter Olympics on the horizon.

"Motivation-wise, I wouldn't say anything's changed," she told FIS.

"I wasn't shooting to reset the record and then that happened last year, and everyone was wondering if I was going to lose motivation, but I was like, 'Why should I lose motivation after accomplishing something that I never truly set out to accomplish?'"

Speaking of Moser-Pröll, Shiffrin added: "She's a complete trailblazer in ski racing and I would say that if I am able to match that title, or the six overalls, that would be probably the biggest accomplishment" [of my career].

Both Shiffrin and Odermatt will continue to face the challenge of trying to excel in multiple disciplines.

The Swiss racer, who won the individual Super-G and giant slalom titles last season, will seek to improve his downhill performances, while Shiffrin, winner of the giant slalom and slalom titles, will also try to add more speed skiing to her repertoire.

"It will get more and more difficult to ski in three disciplines," Odermatt said.

"They do more and more races every year, so this is definitely a big challenge to stay healthy and to stay fit for all those races."

He told FIS that following his 2022-2023 season - in which he also won the giant slalom and Super-G titles - would be "hard, nearly impossible to top."

He added: "I guess last year's season was perfect, every race worked out nearly the way I wanted, so it will be nearly impossible to beat, but I will try my best to make it as good as last year."

Both overall champions won by huge margins last season, but they will not be underestimating the challenge of their main rivals.

For Shiffrin that means Switzerland’s downhill World Cup champion Lara Gut-Behrami, who finished second overall on 1,217 behind her total of 2,206, and Slovakia’s Beijing 2022 Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova, who was overall World Cup champion in 2021 and finished third last time round on 1,125.

Also in the reckoning will be the Italian talents who finished fourth and fifth, respectively Federica Brignone and individual World Cup downhill champion Sofia Goggia.

Odermatt’s closest challengers were all Norwegian, with World Cup downhill champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Henrik Kristoffersen and World Cup slalom champion Lucas Braathen second, third and fourth respectively on 1,340, 1,154 and 954.

The Swiss racer will not have to reckon with Braathen this time, however, as the latter has surprisingly announced his retirement at the age of just 23.

"I’m done, it's over for me," Braathen told a press conference in Norway.

"For the first time in at least six months, I'm happy after making this decision.

"For the first time in years, I feel free."