At the end of January, Mikaela Shiffrin crashed badly in the downhill race in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
Ahead of this season, the American star announced she had made the decision not to race downhill this winter, with reports suggesting it was due to the Cortina accident.
Has prioritized downhill running
But when SVT Sport met Shiffrin in Finnish Levi earlier last winter, she denied that her downhill crash was behind the decision.
– It’s really about the fact that I can’t be in two places at the same time. Training in all disciplines without sacrificing quality is impossible. In the last two years I prioritized downhill and got much better at it, but at the same time got worse at Super-G because it was hard to train on it at the same time.
– So now I intend to go back and focus more on Super G.
Her fiance Alexander Aamodt Kilde also crashed seriously and injured himself badly last season, and has stopped competing entirely this winter. Something that Shiffrin believes has also not affected her decision to forgo the steeplechase.
– I have always known the risks in downhill, but really in all alpine skiing. Injuries happen in all disciplines, but of course there are greater consequences when you crash in a downhill and go straight into the net.
“How much can I give?”
En route to his 100th World Cup victory, Shiffrin crashed again in early December. During the slalom competition in Killington, she received a stab wound in the stomach and was forced to take another break from the competition.
The 29-year-old currently sees no end to her career, but thoughts about an end have followed her for a while.
– It’s something I always think about: How much can I give to the sport? But right now I’m very sure I have a lot more to give.
See the full report with Shiffrin here: