If this is the last overall title Mikaela Shiffrin wins, she sure made it one to remember.
Oh, don’t worry. Shiffrin isn’t going anywhere. But the 31-year-old knows the future of ski racing is the young German who was right behind her in the standings.
Shiffrin tied Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s record with her sixth overall World Cup title. But it was the tightest race for the overall title Shiffrin has ever had, finishing just 87 points ahead of 22-year-old Emma Aicher.
“There’s maybe a new age of skiing again because of the way that Emma skis. That she can do this in every event,” Shiffrin said. “I am really looking forward to watching her in the coming years. … It will be beautiful to watch the fights that will come with the overall globe in the next seasons.”
The race was so close that Shiffrin didn’t believe it when she was told she’d clinched the overall title.
“What? Are you sure?” Shiffrin said, sinking to her knees in the finish area with fiancé Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and U.S. teammate Paula Moltzan looking on.
By the time the victory ceremony was held, however, Shiffrin was all smiles, pumping her fist as she held the massive crystal globe aloft.
“This was the most emotional moment I had with an overall globe,” she said.
The overall title caps a spectacular season for Shiffrin. She won her third Olympic gold medal at the Milano Cortina Olympics last month, and also set a single-season record for most wins in a single discipline with victories in nine of the 10 slalom races.
It also adds to her already lengthy list of accomplishments. Shiffrin holds the records for most total World Cup victories of any skier (110); wins in a season (17); and season titles in a single discipline (nine).
“It’s quite emotional. This thing sums up a whole season of work and fighting with the whole team,” Shiffrin said.
And it comes after two of the most difficult seasons of her career.
Shiffrin missed big chunks of the last two seasons with injuries, including a puncture wound in her obliques suffered in a crash during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. Shiffrin was out for a month, and continued to experience PTSD in GS for the rest of the season.
She’s been concentrating on the tech events as she worked her way back into GS shape, only skiing super-G three times this season. But her dominance in slalom – she won all but one race and was second in the other, and her average margin of victory was almost 1.2 seconds – and improvement in GS got her back to the top of the standings.
“For me, it’s incredible to be part of this (overall) battle at all after the last seasons,” Shiffrin said after winning the slalom race on March 24. “It felt really far away. I’m grateful no matter what.”
Shiffrin had an 85-point lead going into the season’s final race, the GS at the World Cup finals, meaning she only needed to finish 15th or better to clinch the overall title. Aicher needed to win the race and have Shiffrin finish 16th or lower.
That seemed to be a big ask, given Aicher’s best GS finish was fourth place earlier this month in Are, Sweden. But Shiffrin opened the door by finishing 17th in the first run while Aicher was third.
Shiffrin didn’t make any big mistakes in that first run, but neither did she ski with the aggression she had in the slalom race the day before. She said the terrain didn’t feel how she expected it to feel, and she never quite got her bearings.
It’s similar to what she felt during the team combined at the Milano Cortina Olympics, where she posted the fourth-slowest time in the slalom run, dropping her and Breezy Johnson from first to fourth.
But Shiffrin was able to use that experience or, rather, her response to that experience in her second run at the World Cup finals.
“The only way to earn this was to focus on the skiing,” Shiffrin said. “On the second run I was like, ‘Think less.’ Actually, care less and just feel your turns. Feel that energy.”
Shiffrin skied with more purpose on the second run, her increased energy visible. Though the run put her into first place, there were still 16 skiers left. Italy’s Asja Zenere, next up, couldn’t catch her. When fellow American A.J. Hurt also finished behind Shiffrin, the overall title was assured.
Shiffrin wound up 11th. Aicher dropped to 12th after a mistake early in her run nearly sent her off the course.
“On the first run it was maybe not so much there. On the second run it was much better,” Shiffrin said. “It felt like we finished the season kind of earning something, which is great.”
Shiffrin said repeatedly that she will be back next season, and said she’s excited to race more super-G. She has no idea if that will put her in contention for another overall title, which would break her tie with Moser-Pröll and leave her one short of Marcel Hirscher’s record for all Alpine skiers.
For now, she’s just going to savor this one. And the fight it took to get it.
“I don’t take this for granted right now,” she said. “This moment is huge in my career, it’s huge in my life and I really appreciate that.”
Mikaela Shiffrin caps spectacular season with sixth World Cup title – USA Today
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