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rsederquist@vaildaily.com
Mikaela Shiffrin has some bad news for the rest of the World Cup. The Edwards superstar said her form is on point going into Saturday’s opener in Soelden, Austria.
“Honestly, I’m skiing well,” she said during a press conference on Wednesday. “I’m excited to find out how things feel on race day.”
The first run of Saturday’s women’s giant slalom starts at 2 a.m. MST, with the second following three hours later. The men follow on Sunday; both events can be viewed live and on-demand on Peacock.
Shiffrin said she’s kicking off her 15th World Cup season from a better place, training-wise, than last year when she fought consistently poor weather conditions at glaciers and other summer on-snow sites. This year, she said her camps in Chile, Argentina and Europe — where she’s been the last week-and-a-half — have provided “solid training.”
“I’m feeling physically in a pretty good place. And mentally as well,” she said before adding that one tweak to the off-season was remaining in South America a bit longer. “That’s something I’m hoping will pay off throughout the season — to be a little bit better in shape at this time of the year at least than I was last year, where we were just scrambling to find any training whatsoever.”
The bigger adjustment, however, will be in her race calendar. Shiffrin announced earlier this month that she won’t compete in any downhill races in 2024-25. It wasn’t any easy call. Shiffrin said the tech disciplines, where she’s bagged 82 of her 97 World Cup wins (60 in slalom and 22 in GS), have always taken top priority.
“But super-G and downhill, I love,” she added. “They feed my soul.”
Last year, the strain of training for all four hit a breaking point. Shiffrin on Wednesday said she didn’t get on her downhill skis once between winning the World Cup downhill in St. Moritz on Dec. 9 and her crash in Cortina, Italy, on Jan. 26. Lower leg injuries sustained in the latter took her out of the following 11 World Cup races, costing her the overall World Cup lead.
“We kind of had to reevaluate after Cortina and say, what are we doing here that is potentially setting me up for a little bit of failure?” Shiffrin stated. “And one of those things is really trying to juggle every event. At some point, we end up sacrificing quality.”
The super-G — an event she’ll contest at Beaver Creek on Dec. 15 — has gotten the short end of the stick over the past couple years, Shiffrin said. During this prep period, however, she’s used the extra time granted by cutting out downhill entirely to sharpen her super-G skills.
“Trying to get my combination of the downhill speed skills and the technical GS skills and put that back together,” she explained. “We’ll see where that takes us this season.”
Shiffrin didn’t permanently close the downhill door, either.
“It’s also not to say that downhill is entirely out of my future,” she stated. “It’s just kind of a shift for this season about where I want to focus and see where that goes.”
One person Shiffrin won’t have to worry about through until at least December is Petra Vlhova. Her Slovak rival is still working her way back from right knee surgery after a race crash on Jan. 20. The 29-year-old will miss the first two World Cups and a representative said it’s “not probable” she’ll start in the third, fourth or fifth races either, according to NBC Sports.
“I want to return at full strength,” Vlhova told Valentine Graveleau. “It’s been a tough journey, but my knee is in good condition now. I don’t have pain or limitations, but I need to feel 100 percent on the skis.”
Shiffrin said she’ll miss their on-snow battles, but enjoyed off-the-hill conversations with the Olympic slalom champion recently in Ushuaia, Argentina.
“That’s not an experience we get as competitors that much, especially like, top rivals or athletes that are really pushing each other to the limit,” Shiffrin said. “You’re not really looking to go hangout after you race. … We’re both kind of in a stage in our career where (we) just share our experiences.”
After consecutive seasons wherein the seasonal narrative centered on records and numbers, this campaign contains the potential for a World Cup win No. 100 headline. Shiffrin said those career milestones energize her because they “promote the sport.”
“(It) makes the potential of 100 meaningful in a different way,” she said.
With the century win in view, Shiffrin’s main goal remains claiming a sixth overall title, which would tie her with Annemarie Moser-Proll for the most all-time. To balance that target amidst a world championships year — the 2025 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships are in Saalbach, Austria Feb. 4-16 — the 29-year-old is approaching every gate with the same mindset.
“My overall goal in ski racing is to be as prepared at every start to fight for wins and podiums and just to be at the top level. And the same goes for world championships,” she said. “I’m going to try and peak at the start of the season and ride it to the end.”
Mikaela Shiffrin has two victories and six podiums at Soelden over her 14-year World Cup career.
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