Shiffrin can break Vonn’s record, if she can stay awake
KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia (AP) – Staying awake might be Mikaela Shiffrin’s biggest challenge as she prepares to try to set a record for skiing victories at the women’s World Cup.
After pouring out her emotions after taking on Lindsey Vonn for her 82nd career giant slalom win earlier in the morning in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on Sunday, Shiffrin now has to refocus -se, recover your energy and change your sleep patterns in time to do a slalom. will be held under the lights in Flachau, Austria on Tuesday.
“It’s tough,” he said. “If I have a good first run, I don’t start until 9.45pm on the second run and I’m usually fast asleep. So we have to change the whole rhythm again.”
It’s the opposite of how Shiffrin went from a night race in Zagreb, Croatia, last week to earlier start times in Slovenia.
But Shiffrin has learned throughout her extraordinary career how to rise to just such challenges, as shown when she recently won five consecutive races in three different disciplines: super-G, giant slalom and slalom at three different venues.
In addition, slalom is Shiffrin’s best test, the discipline that has accounted for 51 of his 82 victories, four of which were in Flachau.
Shiffrin has already won four of the six Slaloms this season, including the last two.
No wonder he feels confident about setting the record in the hometown of Hermann Maier, another of the sport’s most successful runners.
“If I ski my best slalom, I have a very good chance to take the win,” Shiffrin said. “But there are many other athletes who are fed up with this. So we’ll see what happens.”
Although not as rowdy as the nearby men’s night slalom in Schladming, the Flachau race usually draws a decent crowd of around 15,000 spectators.
Breaking the record in Austria, a country where skiing is the main sport, would be memorable.
“It’s pretty impressive that the top two female skiers of all time are Americans in a sport historically dominated by Europeans,” Vonn wrote in a guest column for The Associated Press. “We are 20 wins ahead of the next woman (Annemarie Moser-Pröll of Austria with 62 wins), which is a substantial margin. So it’s not even close. It just speaks to our country as a whole and what we’re capable of doing.”
Shiffrin said the recent ascension of teammates Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien made her realize how much effort it takes to reach the top for other Americans.
“It’s very difficult to focus the right resources in such a large country,” Shiffrin said. “It makes the future even more exciting than anything our team has accomplished in the past.”
What Shiffrin herself is accomplishing, however, is unlike any other female skier.
His 82 wins have come in 233 races for a 35% win rate. In other words, Shiffrin wins one out of every three races he enters. And he has reached the podium in more than half of his races, 129 of 233, or 55%.
What’s more, Shiffrin is only 27 years old, while Vonn was 33 when she reached 82. Shiffrin could compete for many more years and win many more races, perhaps even setting the new standard above 100 wins.
“It’s mind-boggling, really, when you think about the number of years she’s had at this level of performance and at such an early age,” said U.S. Ski Team Women’s Head Coach Paul Kristofic , who also coached Vonn late in her career. “She’s an exceptional person and an exceptional athlete. Maybe once in a lifetime you see someone like that.”
It seems a foregone conclusion that Shiffrin will also soon break Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time men’s and women’s record of 86 wins.
So the question is, will Shiffrin be considered the greatest skier in history?
Shiffrin and Vonn won four overall World Cup titles, which is considered the biggest prize in the ski racing community, and Shiffrin is on track for a fifth title this season.
Marcel Hirscher holds the record with eight overall titles and Moser-Pröll holds the women’s mark with six.
“I think it’s all about stats and records,” said Mike Day, the head coach of Shiffrin’s personal team. “Right now, she’s clearly one of the best ever. But I think you have to look at Stenmark and Vonn and Hirscher and have massive respect for what people have done before her.”
Piero Gros, Italy’s 1976 Olympic slalom champion who raced against Stenmark, said it makes no sense to compare runners from different eras.
“Shiffrin is up there in heaven. What else can an athlete do? She’s extraordinary. And I’m sure she’s still struggling inside after the loss of her father,” Gros said, referring to when the father of Shiffrin, Jeff, died three years ago. “We know the talent he has, but it’s clear that he also has a lot of inner strength.
“The Americans always seem to produce these champions,” Gros added, “which is amazing in this European skiing world.”
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