After thoughts of retiring and a formative period of suffering with her fiancé Aleksander Kilde, Shiffrin sets her sights on the overall World Cup record. The American is following the US election campaign with concern.
She dismisses the comparison to the Taylor Swift of skiing with a grin. If everything goes her way, Mikaela Shiffrin will break the next fabulous marks on the slopes this winter. She is only three victories away from her 100th World Cup win. And if the 29-year-old remains injury-free, her sixth overall World Cup triumph will be hard to take. And yet the negative experiences of the previous season have left their mark.
As a first consequence, Shiffrin is skipping the downhill after her serious crash in Cortina d'Ampezzo in the previous season. "More super-G, but no downhill this season," is the new approach.
Shiffrin's main goal for the season is to "literally stay the way I am". She describes recapturing the overall World Cup from Lara Gut-Behrami as "my guiding star" for the World Cup winter. With the sixth big globe, she would draw level with record winner Annemarie Moser-Pröll. When it comes to the hundred, she is keeping her cool, but lets it be known that the mark is as important to her as improving Ingemar Stenmark's record (86 wins). She has not had any placement goals in the conventional sense for some time now. "I just want to carry on as before and work hard."
Life-changing moment
Difficult months lie behind her. The fate of her partner Aleksander Kilde, who suffered serious leg and shoulder injuries in Wengen, was a blow. Shiffrin speaks of a life-changing moment, like the death of her father Jeff in 2020. The skiing dream couple apparently even contemplated retiring together. "There were moments when we felt tired." At least symbolically, their engagement in April brought them even closer together. The ring was designed to fit inside the racing glove.
While Shiffrin is back on track, Kilde is still a long way from a comeback nine months after the mishap. In July, the Norwegian downhill skier had to go under the knife again due to an infection in his shoulder. "We thought he was over it. It was all the more difficult," said Shiffrin. Kilde, meanwhile, emphasized his goal of returning to the World Cup. Because he can only train to a limited extent due to his ongoing antibiotic intake, he has now enrolled in a distance learning course (finance and real estate) in London.
Shiffrin is also thinking about the future. "At some point I want to have a family, there are other things I want to experience - all of that becomes more important year after year." Her focus is still on the sport. "As long as the motivation and willingness to make sacrifices are there, I'll keep going." The couple have had their "home base" together in Innsbruck for some time now.
Concerned about the social climate in the USA
Shiffrin is concerned about the social climate in her home country. She is particularly concerned about women's right to self-determination and the abortion debate in the USA. "There are a lot of people who seem to have no problem telling women how to deal with their own health. That's scary. I'm concerned."
In the final spurt of the US presidential election, she therefore wants to use her reach to publicly call for people to go to the polls. She will not be giving her almost 1.5 million Instagram followers an endorsement for Kamala Harris - as pop icon Taylor Swift has done. "I know that my voice carries a certain weight. But I don't want to tell anyone what to do."
