Industry News
After a week of questionable weather reports, both the classic unpredictability of St. Moritz, Switzerland and the sunshine shone through on Saturday during a super-G where Mikaela Shiffrin led three women into the points for the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team with a third-place finish, reports US Ski and Snowboard.
Prior to Saturday’s race, Mikaela told NBC, “It doesn’t matter what the conditions are or what the weather is, the most aggressive, cleanest skier is going to end up on top.” On Saturday, that honor went to Italy’s Sofia Goggia.
At Friday evening’s team meeting, Head Coach Paul Kristofic told the women that the snow was “super familiar, Colorado-type snow.” “You’ve had the best training in the world [at Copper Mountain], so translate that into the best skiing you’ve ever done. Do not worry about the weather, rise above it. Wherever the start is, accept it and go, go go.”
Mikaela now leads the overall standings by 271 points, with 532 points to Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg’s 261 points. Up next is a parallel event on Sunday, an event that Mikaela has excelled in previously but she opted to sit out on Sunday, so she can manage energy levels and focus. Mikaela, who is one of the few athletes to compete in all disciplines (and the only athlete to win in all six currently contested FIS World Cup disciplines), is heading into a busy next couple of weeks on the World Cup tour that includes five races across four disciplines in the next 15 days. She announced the news in an Instagram post on Saturday after the super-G race:
Today was so much fun and the surface was perfect!! Congrats to Sofia Goggia and Federica Brignone, and to my teammates for an awesome collective result. I’ve been asked a couple times if I’m skiing the parallel tomorrow – obviously it’s not an *easy* decision, but I’m opting out of the race tomorrow. There are quite a few reasons for this but at the top of the list is that for several years I have been longing to race Val d’Isere but have never been able to because the @fisalpine schedule is always too tough (for those who race in all disciplines), but one of my goals this season is to get on that track and to race a little more speed in general so I’m trying to manage energy and focus accordingly! It’s always a day to day process, and tough to make these decisions but I’m looking forward to Courchevel! And good luck to the girls tomorrow especially USA 💪💪🤗
The women now travel to Courchevel for a giant slalom on Tuesday and then Val d’Isere, France—a favorite stop on the tour for the women’s speed team—for a downhill and alpine combined on Dec. 21-22. Mikaela is slated to compete in all three upcoming French venue events.
