Mikaela Shiffrin Awarded AIJS “Skieur d’Or”

By Published On: October 28th, 2019Comments Off on Mikaela Shiffrin Awarded AIJS “Skieur d’Or”

For the second time in recent years, a majority of members of the Association Internationale des Journalistes de Ski (AIJS) decided to elect American Mikaela Shiffrin as recipient of the “Skieur d’Or – AIJS Serge Lang Trophy” presented by AIJS President Patrick Lang at the World Cup opener in Soelden.

The three-time Overall World Cup champion and multiple Olympic and World Championship gold medalist is collecting the esteemed crystal trophy created by the artist Joska for the second time. In past years, two other U.S. athletes, Lindsey Vonn back in 2009 and Bode Miller in 2005 were also elected ‘Skieur d’Or AIJS’ by a larger number of ski reporters covering the World Cup Tour.

During the past six years, the 24-year-old athlete from Vail, Colorado, amassed an impressive collection of crystal trophies, gold medals at major events, and victories on the World Cup Tour. She celebrated 17 victories last winter to become the only racer to have excelled in all alpine disciplines including in parallel races. So far, she has won an impressive total of 60 World Cup competitions since her maiden triumph at Are, Sweden, in December 2012 as well as six FIS crystal globes in slalom since 2013.

Members of the AIJS also awarded many votes to last year’s recipient Marcel Hirscher, while Alexis Pinturault, Dominik Paris, Henrik Kristoffersen, and Sofia Goggia also received much support.

“Mikaela as well as Marcel Hirscher were clearly close front runners in this year’s election, and of course both fully deserve it after all their amazing achievements during the past winter. They moved on the highest level during the entire last season and clearly dominated the rest of the field,” commented AIJS President Patrick Lang at the award ceremony at Soelden. “At the end, Mikaela passed Marcel by only a few votes in this year’s election despite the strong support expressed by the great majority of the Austrian members for Marcel Hirscher. Obviously they wanted to congratulate him a last time for his incredible career.”

“Mikaela is a very enjoyable interview partner for ski reporters who greatly appreciate her interesting answers on various subjects. She surely is doing a great job to promote our sport around the globe,” added Lang. “Everyone within the World Cup tour is impressed by her passion and her dedication for alpine ski racing. She works really very hard on and off the snow fields. There are only a few examples in the history of our sport of top-athletes ready to take risks competing in all specialties while shooting for the stars and become true skiing legends. She surely has much more to achieve in her mind. We all wish her great luck for another successful season this winter and more interesting stories with her.”

Winners of the AIJS Skieur d’Or – Serge Lang Trophy 2005-2018

2005 B. Miller (USA) – 2006 B. Raich (AUT) – 2007 A.L. Svindal (NOR) – 2008 M. Lanzinger (AUT) 2009 L. Vonn (USA) – 2010 C. Janka (SUI) – 2011 I. Kostelic (CRO) – 2012 M. Hirscher (AUT) – 2013 T. Maze (SLO) – 2014 A. Fenninger (AUT) – 2015 A. Fenninger (AUT) & M. Hirscher (AUT) – 2016 M. Hirscher (AUT) – 2017 M Shiffrin (USA) – 2018 M Hirscher (AUT)

Release courtesy of AIJS. 

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