CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — There’s much more to Olympic ski racing than what goes on between the gates. A lot of it has to do with what’s going on inside the helmet, and Mikaela Shiffrin hinted at that after a disappointing finish this week in the slalom portion of the women’s combined.
“I didn’t quite find a comfort level that allows me to produce full speed,” Shiffrin, the most decorated skier in history, said after a 15th-place finish that denied a podium spot to her and Breezy Johnson, who finished first in the downhill portion.
“So I’m going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust in the short time we have before the other tech races. There’s always something to learn, so I’m going to go back and analyze with the team and learn that.”
In the coming days we’ll see how much that helped. The four-time Olympian has a chance to add to the three medals — two golds, one silver — she has won in years past. She will compete in the giant slalom on Sunday and slalom on Wednesday.
Four years ago, she was a favorite in Beijing but went 0 for 6 on podiums and failed to cross the finish line three times. Her best individual result was ninth in the super-G.
“I don’t want Beijing to be the reason that I’m scared of the Olympics,” she told Olympics.com last fall. “And for the past few years, it has been a little bit.”
With Lindsey Vonn recovering from injuries sustained in her violent crash in Sunday’s downhill, Shiffrin leads a group of women many people see as historic in its depth and seasoning.
“The U.S. Ski Team has the strongest women’s team, maybe in history,” said racing legend Picabo Street, now a skiing commentator for NBC. “It’s only rivaled by the ‘84 Sarajevo team.”
That team 42 years ago produced two medals, both in giant slalom, with Debbie Armstrong winning gold and Christin Cooper silver.
Already, this team has matched that medal count, with Johnson winning gold in downhill, and the duo of Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan taking bronze in women’s combined.
“I think watching Breezy in the morning was the most beautiful way to understand what the mindset needs to be,” Shiffrin said after her disappointing finish. “There’s no pressure. It’s all about having fun on the skis.”
The slalom course at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre is set up on the bottom portion of the downhill course, and not especially steep or icy relative to other tracks. That gives less of an advantage to Shiffrin, who is especially good in those conditions.
As a result, the times are clumped much closer together and Shiffrin has less of a chance to distinguish herself with what she does best.
“She annihilates people on the steep pitch that’s like a sheet of ice,” Street said. “She now has to look to how does she run it fast and try to squeak out as much time as she can, and race it more than execute her immaculate plan.
“You can’t set a cranky, turny, demanding course on that hill. So the course is most likely going to be set pretty fast and pretty straight. She has to figure out how to accept that less is more. Just making enough of a turn and enough of an edge to get the job done, then moving on to the next turn.”
The strength of this U.S. team is not about star power, but depth across all disciplines. There’s camaraderie among the women, whether they compete in the speed events of downhill and super-G, and tech events of slalom and giant slalom.
“In the past, there were so many races — and frankly years — where we felt like we could never be competitive with the Europeans,” said American Nina O’Brien, who specializes in giant slalom and slalom. “We were failing, wondering if we’d ever make it.”
Then came a breakthrough, but a gradual one.
“We didn’t really do anything special,” she said. “We just kept going. And when one person has a good day, somehow that helps pull the next person up. Like, ‘OK, my best friend just did that. Why can’t I?’”
The bonds among the women are deep and personal. For instance, they all wait at the bottom of the hill to watch their teammates race, rather than packing up and leaving when their day is done. When a U.S. competitor crosses the finish line and skids to a sideways stop, she soon has a teammate there to greet her with a hug.
“These are the people I’ve grown up with,” O’Brien explained. “They’re like my sisters at this point.”
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