MIKAELA SHIFFRIN EXCEEDS ALL EXPECTATIONS WITH DOMINANT VICTORY IN SWEDEN.
Winning World Cup ski races by a margin of 1.2 seconds or greater against elite competition is highly improbable, unusual, and, for most ski racers, unthinkable. Now imagine an athlete doing this after being out of race form and recovering from a demoralizing injury in a dangerous sport where quick reaction and timing on the race slope are critical. It seems impossible.
Yet, this is precisely what Mikaela Shiffrin accomplished in Åre, Sweden, as she claimed her 96th World Cup victory. Shiffrin had been sidelined with a left leg injury, including ligament sprains and a bone bruise, from a high-speed crash in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in late January. Her return to racing and her dominating 1.24-second winning margin on Sunday was astonishing.
It took the Colorado ski racer six weeks to rehabilitate her injuries, during which she only managed four slalom training sessions. Shiffrin not only defied the odds with her comeback triumph but also clinched a record-tying eighth World Cup slalom title.
“There has been so much uncertainty coming into this race – the biggest goal I had was just to ski well in the final races of the season,” Shiffrin said after her victory in Åre. “Just to have the chance to do that again before the season is over, it felt so important so I can prove that I have the right pace and mentality to close out the season and start next year in a better place.
“We weren’t sure it would work, and now we look back at this, and my whole team, everybody is like – ‘Oh my gosh, you’ve got to be kidding me, I’m in a dream right now.’”
Naturally, everyone wondered if Shiffrin was enduring any pain. Journalists politely asked, secretly wanting to know, ‘Are you human?’
“Yes, but it’s manageable – I feel like I can ski really well right now,” Shiffrin admitted about feeling pain while charging down the long slalom race course, which has a 620-foot vertical drop. “I felt great with my first run skiing, and I thought if I can be just a little more clean, it will feel better, also on the knee, so this (second) run I wouldn’t change anything.”
Shiffrin clocked the fastest times in both the first and second runs on a familiar mountain where she won her first World Cup race in 2012 and became the all-time World Cup victories leader with her 87th win last March.
Swiss two-time Olympic champion Michele Gisin, who finished third, 1.34 seconds behind Shiffrin, commended her American opponent on the impressive return to form.
“It’s amazing, of course – she had a very bad crash in Cortina, as many of us had, and I think she was struggling a lot,” Gisin said. “It’s great that she wasn’t injured even worse; I’m very grateful for her because it would have been horrible.
“She’s back and skiing almost perfectly already, especially in the second run. It was very beautiful to watch.”
THE BATTLE BACK
Shiffrin provided further insight into the hard work, rehabilitation, and struggles behind the scenes of the comeback, alongside her committed team, which includes her mother and coach Eileen Shiffrin, and first-year personal coach Karin Harjo.
“It’s almost like riding a bike, but a different bike than you’ve been riding, so sometimes you’re a little bit rusty,” Shiffrin said.
“These last weeks with my team, mostly we all did a really good job to stay day-by-day. When you’re trying to come back from an injury during the season, it’s a different feeling. You can’t take one minute for actual recovery or rest because every minute we had a plan of progressing. You hit these check marks along the way.
“That was challenging for all of us, we’re skiing, it’s painful, and we’re wondering, why are we trying? It’s because this is our goal, it’s going to work, and we just have to be patient.”
Summarizing the challenge, all culminating in an unexpected victory in Sweden, Shiffrin added: “Coming here today, it’s a really special feeling. Like a dream.”