Shiffrin begins quest for five medals in defense of giant slalom gold

Mikaela Shiffrin starts her ambitious pursuit of five Olympic medals in the first of five individual events that she hopes to compete in – the women’s giant slalom. The tech event launches the Beijing 2022 women’s race program on Monday morning, the first run starting at 9:30 am local time with the second run following, five hours later at 2:30pm.

Petra Vlhova has the honors on the 47-gate, 424-meter vertical drop “Ice River” course, while Shiffrin will kick out seventh.

Shiffrin enters the GS as the defending Olympic champion, having won in PyeongChang four years ago, by a decisive 0.39 margin over Norwegian silver medalist.

The Colorado racer spoke about what it might take to succeed on the Chinese race slope, the texture and feel of the snow and dealing with the unpredictable winds, all during a virtual news conference while at the Yanqing Olympic village.

“If you want to get a medal here, you better ski well because the surface is legit and the hills are not easy, there are some serious pitches on all of the hills, both speed and tech venues,” Shiffrin said, about the days and races ahead. “It is going to require skiing that is really on point.”

Shiffrin said that the Chinese man-made snow at the race venue is somewhat reminiscent of at home in Colorado.

“It’s these long strips of ice down the mountain, but because it is manmade, snow, I don’t know why that is, something about the structure of the snow crystal, it has a lot more grip and aggressiveness, which is much more like Colorado,” Shiffrin said. “It’s dry and it catches your edges in a different way than natural snow.”

Shiffrin also briefly addressed the unpredictable winds, an element that has already played havoc on the men’s side.

“Some of the conditions may play a factor in results and you could only hope that you get some luck, or don’t get unlucky and control what you can control,” she said.

Shiffrin enters the GS as the defending Olympic champion, having won in PyeongChang four years ago, by a decisive 0.39 margin over Norwegian silver medalist Ragnhild Mowinckel. Shiffrin set the tone quickly in 2018, clocking the fastest opening run time, 0.09 seconds ahead of eventual bronze medalist Federica Brignone.

Shiffrin, also a 2021 world championship silver medalist, has two GS victories and three podiums in five World Cup races in the discipline this World Cup season. She has also been top seven in all. Of Shiffrin’s 73 career World Cup victories, 14 have come in GS.

In a slight twist of events – the result of a revamped Monday program at the Yanqing ski venue due to Sunday’s men’s downhill postponement – Shiffrin will take to the mountain for her two GS runs while boyfriend Alexander Aamodt Kilde races in the men’s downhill.

The GS contenders

The Olympic giant slalom will unfold on a previously unseen and untested course, as is the case for all slopes at China’s National Alpine Skiing Center. In what has become a catch phrase for Beijing 2022 races, it will be an “even playing field” for all, although one might surmise that the American’s biggest threats are Vlhova, Tessa Worley (bib #4), Sara Hector (bib #6), Ragnhild Mowinckel (bib #11), Federica Brignone (bib #3) and Marta Bassino (bib #5).

Vlhova, who trails Shiffrin’s lead in the overall World Cup standings, is still without a GS victory this season, although she has three podium finishes. The 25-year-old Slovak is striving to become her country’s first-ever medalist in alpine skiing. She was 13^th in the PyeongChang Olympic GS, her best Olympic result.

French veteran and two-time world giant slalom champion Tessa Worley is racing at her third Olympic Games. The 32-year-old is relishing competing for the first time on a new slope after 16 years and 232 World Cup starts.

“It’s always a big surprise to be on a new slope,” Worley said, earlier this season. “I don’t want to have too many ideas before – I just want to get on the slope, ski and not ask myself too many questions.”

Worley has delivered at major events in the past as she is the 2013 GS world champion. She owns 15 career World Cup GS victories and has demonstrated excellent form this season having recently won in both Kronplatz and Lienz, in December and January.

Sweden’s Sara Hector is the current World Cup GS leader, and at age 29 is showcasing some of the best racing of her career. She has three GS victories this season coming in Courchevel, Kranjska Gora and like Worley, has also won in Kronplatz.

Intangibles

In PyeongChang, in which the two-week schedule was dramatically altered due to blustery wind and uncooperative weather, Shiffrin added a silver medal in the combined to her GS gold. Having faltered in the slalom and opting out of the downhill and super-G, Shiffrin admitted that she was physically and mentally exhausted facing the revamped Olympic race program.

The weather forecast for Monday morning generally looks decent for the race with continued sub-freezing temperatures, although partly cloudy skies may prevail for the first time since racers arrived at the Yanqing venue.

Slovenia coaches will set the course for the morning run, while Austria will do so in the afternoon.

Additional U.S. starters include Nina O’Brien (#21), Paula Moltzan (#26) and AJ Hurt (#31). In total, there will be 82 first-run starters representing a staggering 49 countries.

Records at stake

Shiffrin will open competition at her third Winter Games, eight years since Sochi 2014, in which she displayed calm and composure winning Olympic slalom gold under the lights as an inexperienced 18-year-old racer.

If the 26-year-old Colorado skier can charge to a second-consecutive Olympic giant slalom title at China’s National Alpine Skiing Center, she’ll match Italian Deborah Compagnoni, who won back-to-back gold medals at Lillehammer 1994 and Nagano 1998.

Should Shiffrin win just one medal in Beijing, it would tie her with Julia Mancuso as the most decorated female ski racer in American Olympic history. Three medals would match the female record of six at an Olympic Games accomplished by both Janica Kostelic and Anja Paerson.

Besides Shiffrin, other American female Olympic GS champions are Andrea Mead Lawrence (Oslo 1952), Debbie Armstrong (Sarajevo 1984) and Julia Mancuso (Torino 2016).

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