American starlet Mikaela Shiffrin will bid to continue her on-piste dominance at the world championships starting Tuesday as racing giants Aksel Lund Svindal and Lindsey Vonn prepare to bow out.
Shiffrin heads to the February 5-17 skiing jamboree in Are, Sweden, with 13 World Cup victories already to her name this season.
She leads the World Cup overall, slalom, giant slalom and super-G standings.
Her latest victory, in the Maribor slalom on Saturday, was the 56th of her career and means she is just one win short of Vreni Schneider’s all-time record of 14 victories in a World Cup campaign.
It also saw her move above Schneider to fifth on the all-time World Cup win list behind only Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark (86), Vonn (82), and Austrians Marcel Hirscher (68) and Annemarie Moser-Proll (62)
Her strongest discipline, the slalom, has earned her six wins since the November 17 opening weekend, but there have also been three super-G and three giant slalom triumphs and one parallel slalom win, boding well for a multi-medal bid in Are.
“The numbers dehumanize what we’re all doing,” Shiffrin, 23, said.
“People have said it’s boring when the same person continues to win. For me – and for us as competitors – it’s not boring.
“Every race is a fight.
There’s always a new goal to keep doing better, and the competition is always strong.
It’s exciting, it’s nerve-wracking and there’s never any certainty.”
Shiffrin added: “The numbers are amazing, but summing it all up to a number – it’s not possible for me.
Sometimes I’m nervous, sometimes I’m confident. It’s not about winning. It’s about making my best turns.”
– Carry my own torch –
Shiffrin’s second World Cup win of the weekend, after tying Friday’s giant slalom with Petra Vlhova, followed the anouncement by 34-year-old teammate Vonn that she was to retire.
Vonn is the most successful women’s alpine ski racer with 82 World Cup wins, but Shiffrin insisted she set her own goals.
“What (Vonn) she’s done for the sport is incredible. I would never try to carry that torch,” two-time defending World Cup champion Shiffrin said.
“I’ll carry my own torch.”
Shiffrin warned against complacency going into the worlds.
“(Saturday’s win) is good for the confidence, but I also have to be careful not to take that for granted because every race is a fight and every victory is a fight,” she said.
“I have big goals for the world championships, but nothing is guaranteed so I’ll just try to do my best skiing and see what happens.”
Vonn will bow out after 19 illustrious seasons that has seen her scoop a record 20 crystal globes, including four overall titles, and the 2010 Olympic downhill gold.
As injuries take their toll, Vonn announced last week that “I have finally accepted that I cannot continue ski racing… My body is broken beyond repair and it isn’t letting me have the final season I dreamed of”.
Also bowing out will be Norwegian colossus Svindal.
The 36-year-old missed last week’s famed Kitzbuehel races after aggravating a knee injury in training.
“Things haven’t gone as planned, but I really want to go fast in the world champs and finish up in style there,” said Svindal, the Olympic gold medallist in the super-G (2010) and downhill (2018), a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007, 2009) with 36 wins on the circuit to his name, and also a five-time world gold medallist.
Austrian Marcel Hirscher, the reigning seven-time overall World Cup champion, will bid to build on another successful season on the circuit on Swedish slopes.
The 29-year-old Hirscher has racked up 10 wins this season and looks to have refound his attacking first-leg slalom mojo after a thrilling victory in Schladming last week.
AFP
