Mikaela Shiffrin 'energised' by potential 100th World Cup win but skipping downhill as season kicks off in Soelden
Published 24/10/2024 at 11:07 GMT+1
Five-time overall World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin has said she is "energised" by the possibility of a record 100th win as she gears up for the first race in Soelden. The American, widely regarded as one of the greatest Alpine skiers of all time, holds the record for the most World Cup victories - 97 - and admitted she has a new approach to the records discussion ahead of her 15th season.
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Video credit: TNT Sports
All-time great Mikaela Shiffrin has said she is "energised" by talk of a landmark 100th World Cup win as the new season kicks off this weekend.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist has a record 97 wins on the circuit and could become the first to reach a century, with a modified race plan for this year involving no downhill events.
Her 15th Alpine skiing season begins in Soelden, Austria on Saturday, October 26, with the American appearing in good spirits and excited about the new season earlier this week.
"My mentality for so long has been trying to avoid those questions," she said, referring to her record achievement and the possibility of 100 wins, but she explained her mentality has shifted this year.
"I've talked to you all about this, like, 'the numbers again, the records, I don't want to talk about the records, I don't think about the records'. Even though that may be true, bringing energy to the sport is never a bad thing.
"Whether you want to talk about records or statistics or anything, and I feel energised right now when people bring up 100. I think it's incredible that people are still following along this journey and excited about it."
Of those 97, 60 of her wins have come in slalom, 22 in giant slalom, five in the super-G and four in downhill, the most recent coming in St. Moritz in December 2023.
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But a bad crash in the downhill at Cortina d'Ampezzo this January, when she was taken by helicopter to hospital, brought some perspective on her attempts to compete in every discipline and prompted a rethink. She finished the last World Cup campaign with nine wins and third in the overall standings, despite missing several races as she recovered from a knee injury sustained in the crash.
"Juggling training for every discipline is always a struggle," she said. "GS is always a priority but I love super-G and downhill - they feed my soul. But it came to a head in Cortina. I had not had a single day [training downhill skiing] since St Moritz [which she won].
"We had to reevaluate after Cortina and say, 'what are we doing here that is potentially setting me up for a little bit of failure?' One of those things is trying to juggle every event. At some point, we end up sacrificing quality.
"It just felt so far away to be able to execute good GS skiing [after the crash]. I'm really grateful to my team to get me back to a race pace for GS. It's exciting, it's a little nerve-wracking [ahead of Saturday's race]."
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Watch highlights as Shiffrin secures slalom World Cup win No. 60 with victory in Saalbach
Video credit: TNT Sports
After that disruption the 29-year-old, who picked up an eighth slalom globe at the close of last term, was confident her training ahead of this season has put her in a good place.
"My prep has been pretty great. [I'm] really excited to kick off another World Cup season - yet another, we're still here! It's just been such a stark contrast to last year, where we fought and struggled with the weather all through the summer and the fall. I'm feeling physically in a pretty good place and mentally as well."
Another difference this year will be the presence of fiancé and fellow World Cup skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who will be watching in her camp rather than competing himself. The Norwegian, a two-time Olympic medallist, has been ruled out of competition this season after a setback in his recovery from a horror downhill crash in Wengen, Switzerland, in January.
"I'm so motivated and inspired by him, so it's not great to be apart from each other," Shiffrin said. "But this is the most supportive relationship I could ever imagine. We can be going through completely different experiences and still be able to support each other.
"I think he's going to be in Soelden this weekend, which is wonderful. This season, I think we're just going to take it in strides, take it as it comes."
Shiffrin's planning for this season also had to take into account the World Championships in Saalbach, Austria, in February.
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"World Championships, I almost think about it like a World Cup race," she explained. "My overall goal in ski racing is to be as prepared at every start to fight for wins or podiums, and to be on the top level, and the same goes for World Championships. So in that way, it keeps the priorities pretty simple.
"It is challenging - you can't really go for a proper peaking strategy from a sports science perspective, for the World Championships or the Olympics, if you're racing World Cup races right up to the weekend prior and immediately after.
"Obviously those World Cup races are a priority for me. Easier said than done, but I'm going to try to peak at the start of the season and ride it to the end, which is basically not scientifically possible!"
But the American insisted that her focus remained solely on performance, rather than trying to attain the much-discussed 100th win, and shared that it was the circumstances around her victories that stuck in her memory more.
"Having moments that help you file the victories in your head a little, like the record victory, my family was there, my mum was there, and those things become core memories because of what surrounds it, not the victory itself.
"I feel almost less pressure about it [100] because I think it's exciting that people are excited about it. I'm going to do my best because I want to be in shape to hopefully win races, so I'm trying to have fun with it."
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