– Now this can’t possibly be true, it can’t be real anymore! Also Mikaela Shiffrin the slalom race ends during the first gates, announcer Nina Old house snorted.
– An exact copy of the giant slalom, exactly the same run out, the expert commented Kalle Palander.
Mikaela Shiffrin went to the Beijing Olympics last winter in pursuit of up to five medals. In technical sports, he was the biggest favorite to win. The race contract turned into a nightmare.
In the first event, the giant slalom, Shiffrin, the reigning Olympic champion, stopped immediately. Two days later, Shiffrin fell out at the very beginning in the slalom, in which he had won Olympic gold in 2014.
Shiffrin went home empty-handed. He was ninth in the super giant slalom and 18th in the steeplechase. In the alpine combined, he stopped, again in the slalom, after being fifth after the jump. Even the team competition did not result in a medal, as the USA finished fourth.
“I feel like a joke”
It was the toughest two weeks of Shiffrin’s career. He took his first victory in the World Cup in Sweden, in the Åre slalom race at the age of 16 in December 2012.
Shiffrin is known as an incredibly confident calculator who “never quits”. In Beijing, Shiffrin experienced 60 percent of the suspensions of his career up to that point.
– I do not understand this. I can’t explain to you how frustrated I am not knowing what I can learn from this, Updated by Shiffrin (you are moving to another service) for CNN.
The biggest shock for Shiffrin, in addition to missing out on the medals, was that she did not reach the finish line in the slalom in her bread event, even in the alpine combined. Perhaps the interruptions at the beginning of the Games were too much for self-confidence.
– Right now I feel like a joke.
After the Games ended, Shiffrin was able to reflect better. He stated succinctly that the culmination of four years of work is over, and it didn’t go very well.
– Failure is not so scary, especially when I failed because I tried so hard – maybe too hard, Shiffrin pondered (you will switch to another service) for CNN.
Shiffrin also shared the rude messages she received on social media: “you got what you deserved”, “narcissistic”, “stupid mother-in-law can’t even do the one thing she should be doing right”.
On social media, Shiffrin was told that her career was over. Shiffrin admitted that at the moment of great disappointment, he himself was already afraid that he had lost his tats.
– I saw a comment that said: “You’re just a loser and you didn’t get anything done”. I was like, ‘I know!'” Shiffrin laughed.
– I understand that and I am a loser, but I have also been a winner and I believe I can win again.
This season, Shiffrin has won four out of seven races in both slalom and giant slalom at the World Cup. There is also one victory from the super-G. Shiffrin leads by far the overall World Cup race.
The accidental death of my father shook me
Shiffrin knew how to put the Olympic disappointment into perspective. Motivation had already been put to the test before.
The alpine skiing star was competing in Europe in February 2020 when his father, 65 Jeff Shiffrin suffered a fatal head injury in an accident at his home in Colorado.
Shiffrin managed to fly home to be by his father’s side before his death.
Jeff had followed his daughter’s career closely and toured the games as a photographer for the American Federation. Mum Eileen Shiffrin has been one of his daughter’s coaches throughout this career.
In addition, in the same short period of time, Shiffrin experienced the death of her grandmother and the fierce wildfires in Colorado that threatened her home.
Shiffrin was out of competition for almost a year before returning to the Games at the end of 2020 with Levi. Of course, cancellations caused by the corona pandemic also affected the long competition break. Shiffrin said that the Deaths of loved ones brought about a change in mindset and let go of the competitive tension.
He said that he now thinks that there is no excitement in the games, because screwing up is not the worst thing that can happen. He wanted to find joy in counting again, because that’s what his father would have wanted.
Perhaps the most important person Shiffrin has received support from is the Norwegian alpine skier who won Olympic silver and bronze in Beijing Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. The pair began texting and then dating when Shiffrin returned to racing after her father’s death. Kilde supported Shiffrin in grief, and Shiffrin supported Kilde in his recovery from a career-threatening injury.
Shiffrin revealed that Kilde had already asked her out on a date years before, but even then she had given the Norwegian a negative answer.
The constant comparison to Lindsey Vonn has been frustrating
Lindsey Vonn is on various lists among the most famous American winter athletes of all time, even though he achieved “only” one Olympic gold, the downhill victory in Vancouver 2010.
Vonn won the overall World Cup competition four times and the diving cup no less than eight times. Shiffrin has already won the overall race four times. Most often, six times, the overall women’s race has been conquered by an Austrian who dominated the plunge in the 1970s Annemarie Moser-Pröll.
Vonn, who stopped competing in 2019 due to severe injuries, was in the headlines during her career – and has remained so – for many reasons. Your CNBC list (you will switch to another service) already in 2014, he was named the USA’s “all-time celebrity” among Winter Olympic athletes.
Vonn first dated a golf icon Tiger Woods and later a hockey player PK Subban’s with. Vonn and Subban’s social media antics were highly followed, but the couple ended up breaking up in 2020.
In the famous swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated magazine, Vonn has posed three times. His biography has been a bestseller.
On Instagram, Shiffrin has 1.2 million followers, Vonn has 2.1 million.
More than half of Vonn’s World Cup victories came in the plunge. He turned 34 until his body just couldn’t take it anymore.
Shiffrin is only 27 years old. She already has the most slalom wins, including both men and women.
Shiffrin is a technical calculator who has been considered an introvert who doesn’t always even air his winnings. Vonn was a wild head, with a flamboyant personality.
It is natural that over the years Vonn and Shiffrin have been tuned for comparison and confrontation, which they themselves have sometimes fueled.
For example, in 2019, Vonn criticized Shiffrin when she missed some of the sports at the World Championships.
– I’m approaching my career in a way that no one has done before, and people really don’t understand that, Shiffrin acknowledged and announced that he doesn’t want to burn himself out, but to be in full swing when he gets to the line.
Sports Illustrated in an interview (you move to another service) 2019 Shiffrin was asked directly if the stories about the duo’s tense relationship are true.
Shiffrin teased that they don’t know each other very well and that many of the duo’s statements have been taken out of context.
Shiffrin also found it frustrating that she has been considered “the next Vonn”.
– Regardless of what I do, his achievements are his achievements. He is a legend in our sport.
– My message to young athletes is to look at your idols, take inspiration from them and learn your path. But be yourself, do things your own way.
The best of all times?
Is Shiffrin the greatest athlete of all time in his sport? According to Kalle Palander, that can be said.
– Physically, mentally and skillfully, he has been on a completely different level than any other calculator.
Shiffrin can beat others when the conditions are tough and icy. In addition, Palander points out that Shiffrin calculates the base times when looking at the rest of the course, from the last intermediate point to the finish line. So physics is at an amazing level.
According to Palander, Shiffrin has always been a humble athlete, and now the joy of counting is also striking again.
The biggest question for Shiffrin is no longer whether he will break the Swedish legend in the World Cup By Ingemar Stenmark all-time record for wins, 86.
Will a hundred wins be broken?
Race Director of the Women’s World Cup By Peter Gerdolin in my opinion, comparing different eras is as difficult as Pelé and Lionel Messi’s comparison on the football side: different conditions, different equipment and so on. Compared to Stenmark, this is indeed the case.
Stenmark counted only slalom (40 wins) and giant slalom (46 wins). Stenmark unfathomably won both the slalom cup and the giant slalom cup seven times in a row (1975–1981). Three times it was enough for the overall cup title. Super giant slalom did not enter the World Cup until 1982–83.
For example, in the 1974–75 season, there were 27 World Cup games on the program. This season, there would be 47 without the cancellations caused by the lack of snow.
Stenmark counted 230 World Cup races. He won 86 (37.4%) and was on the podium 155 times (67.4%).
Vonn’s statistics were 393 races, 82 wins (20.8%) and 137 podium positions (34.7%).
Shiffrin’s statistics are now: 238 starts, 83 wins (34.9%) and 131 podiums (55%).
Anyway, the CEO of the USA Ski and Snowboard Association by Sophie Goldschmidt the assessment was not even for alpine skiing.
– Shiffrin has the potential to be the best American female athlete of all time.
Born: 13.3.1995 in Vail, Colorado, USA.
At the Olympics: 2014 slalom gold in Sochi, giant slalom gold and alpine combined silver in 2018 Pyeongchang.
In the World Cup: Four slalom golds, one super giant slalom gold and one alpine combined gold. Two World Championship silver and three World Championship bronze.
In the World Cup: Won the overall race Four times (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022). Won the slalom cup six times, giant slalom and super giant slalom once.
Sources: CNN, Reuters, AP News, Olympics.com, Sports Illustrated, CNBC