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Mikaela Shiffrin took her second win of the weekend in Bansko, Bulgaria, winning her fourth FIS World Cup super-G, reports US Ski and Snowboard. Behind Mikaela, Marta Bassino of Italy grabbed her second second-place finish of the weekend, and Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland was third.
“It was a perfect weekend for me,” said Mikaela, who won the first downhill on Friday and was fourth in the downhill on Saturday. “It was super fun, but again—it was a really big challenge.” Mikaela walked away from the weekend with a massive 250 more points to extend her lead in the overall.
Shiffrin put down a risky, aggressive run down the dark and bumpy Bansko track, but it was worth it, as she came out .29 seconds ahead of Marta. The triumph also means she’s won a race in every discipline besides the alpine combined this season.
Mikaela, who has been lauded as more of a technical skier, has been excelling in speed events over the last few years and her confidence continues to grow:
“I felt really good on my skis—I felt like I could do what I wanted to do,” she said. “But I had to be really aggressive. It wasn’t always perfectly clean, but it was the fastest way I could ski this hill and this course. I’m super excited.”
The win brings Mikaela’s total to 66 wins—just one shy of Marcel Hirscher’s record of 67 wins—and leaves Mikaela in the lead of the overall, slalom and super-G standings and second place in the giant slalom and downhill standings. Ingemar Stenmark (86 wins) and Lindsey Vonn (82) hold the top two spots.
“This season has been a really big challenge—every single race,” said Mikaela. “There are so many women that are skiing really fast, really strong. Every race is such a big fight and I haven’t been the one on top of this fight every time. Certainly, I’ve been feeling sometimes like the expectations that I have or that other people may have, I’m not quite living up to that. It’s hard not to feel like I’m failing sometimes, even though this is an incredible season.”
The women have more speed events next weekend, heading to the 2014 Olympic venue: Rosa Khutor in Sochi, Russia. Mikaela is undecided about whether or not she will travel to Russia for the speed series.
Hi Mikaela, Great work winning the super-G race in Bansko, Bulgaria. I liked watching it. You have such good balance. I had no idea there are so many mountains in that country. If you would like to chat sometime my email is mikeschirmer@earthlink.net. Mike