Most of you know my interest in ski racing. I think what is happening right now with Mikaela Shiffrin is astonishing. Plus, it comes right on the heels of the ending of another spectacular career of an American woman (obviously, Lindsey Vonn). The two of them, both incredible ski racers, couldn't be more different in other ways. While Vonn seemed to careen through her career with wild abandon, enjoying incredible success with flamboyance and complete openness in regard to her emotions, Shiffron seems to be in complete command. I can't help but admire both of them. They are unique.
Where Vonn is unabashedly outspoken and can cause a stir with her words, Shiffrin is also supremely confident in her approach. I found this article from Amanda Ruggeri that is very good in my opinion. It seems she writes quite a bit about ski racing with a lot of knowledge. I will have to read more from her. https://deadspin.com/mikaela-shiffrin-rules-the-world-by-knowing-what-she-ca-1832703087 That's the whole article, but the guts of it, that really impressed me is as follows:
The championships, of course, were much different. There were expectations. Lots of them. And they seemed, at least at one point, to rub Shiffrin the wrong way.
Requiring one run of slalom and one run of downhill, the combined event seemed suited to Shiffrin, who is fast becoming an all-around star. But she sat it out. It was a decision she struggled with. “I have been going back and forth on this decision so much, it feels like a game of ping pong in my head,” she wrote on Instagram. But the reasons were classic Shiffrin. She was focusing on winning three events instead of stretching herself to four (or, if she’d done the team event or downhill, five or six). She was prioritizing her energy over a record, her health over numbers.
"The most difficult thing” of the season, she went on, “has been balancing my desire to race as much as possible with managing my energy levels both physically and mentally and not taking anything for granted.”
To other athletes, well aware (and perhaps a little envious) that Shiffrin could have a shot at more medals and was choosing not to go for it, this did not compute.
“She could have won everything,” Lindsey Vonn told reporters. “I’m a racer and I want to race in every single race that I possibly can. I respect her decision. It’s obviously her decision. But she has the potential and 100 percent the capability of getting a medal in all five disciplines. So I don’t personally understand it.”
For all of the attempts to describe Shiffrin as “taking the torch” from Vonn, for all the probability that Shiffrin will indeed become the woman to smash Vonn’s own records, the two racers couldn’t be more different. It’s worth noting that when Vonn was closer to Shiffrin’s age, she too seemed a little less focused on records: “My goal is always to just win the next race,” she told reporters at 27.
Yet even then, Vonn was still talking about victories. When Shiffrin talks about her approach, she talks about making good turns.
It goes without saying that every athlete at this level wants to win, badly. But Shiffrin may have tapped her full potential by trying to keep her focus on the process, not the outcome.
And for her, a big part of being able to make those good turns is having the energy to do so. That has meant being strategic—and, for all of her multi-discipline racing, relatively focused—on which events she enters.
Just compare the two athletes. In her best season, 2011–12, Vonn, the most successful female racer of all time, took 12 victories in 37 races. That’s a win rate of just under a third. Shiffrin’s victory rate thus far this year is 65 percent. Vonn is famously likely to go big or go home—meaning her record is scattered with DNFs from crashing, while Shiffrin, no matter how aggressive she can be, hardly ever pushes so far to the edge of her limits. Another potential difference? Vonn, who got her start as a slalom skier before becoming a speed queen, was spreading herself across more disciplines. Even with her successful entries into super-G and downhill, so far this season Shiffrin has done just five speed events on the World Cup tour, compared to 15 in GS and slalom. By the same point of the year in the 2011–12 season, Vonn had done 20 World Cup races too, but 10 of them were technical events. Vonn also had done nine downhill training runs, exactly like World Cup downhill races in everything but prestige (including the toll on one’s energy), in addition.
As the racers both know all too well, the more disciplines you race, the tougher everything becomes. The disciplines all require different skill sets, mentalities and approaches. And more concretely, every hour you spend running slalom gates is a day you’re not practicing downhill—and vice versa. This is why Slovenian all-rounder Tina Maze was so extraordinary. It’s also why, at times, she was so tired, tired enough to tell a young Shiffrin never to compete in every event.
So it’s little wonder that Vonn’s comments on whether Shiffrin should have done more events seemed to ruffle Shiffrin, who has good reason to think her personal approach isn’t up for criticism ... and perhaps certainly not from an athlete like Vonn, who, her stunning success aside, was just forced into retirement from pushing, and injuring, her body too much over the years.
“As the one who has been trying to race in every discipline this season, and who has won in five disciplines this season alone, I can tell you that not a single one of those wins was ‘easy,’” Shiffrin shot back. “There is no such thing as an easy win. From the outside, people see the records and stats. As I have said, those numbers dehumanize the sport and what every athlete is trying to achieve. What I see is an enormous mixture of work, training, joy, heartache, motivation, laughs, stress, sleepless nights, triumph, pain, doubt, certainty, more doubt, more work, more training, surprises, delayed flights, canceled flights, lost luggage, long drives through the night, expense, more work, adventure, and some races mixed in there.”
She went on: “At 23, I’m still understanding my full potential as well as my limitations. But I have definitely learned not to let hubris dictate my expectations and goals. My goal has never been to break records for most WC wins, points or most medals at Word Champs. My goal is to be a true contender every time I step into the start, and to have the kind of longevity in my career that will allow me to look back when all is said and done and say that—for a vast majority of the duration of my career—I was able to compete and fight for that top step rather than being sidelined by getting burnt out or injured from pushing beyond my capacity.”
If you thought that last bit, in particular, seemed like a shot at Vonn, you wouldn’t be the only one. But it also describes Shiffrin’s approach to a T—one her team may have developed in part by looking at and learning from the experiences of other, older racers, but mostly, I think, because this style just suits her.
Sue and I watched all of the races during the Worlds in Are, Sweden and I also wondered why Shiffrin didn't race in the Combined or the Downhill. I thought maybe she didn't want to take the spotlight from Vonn during her final race in the Downhill (at least not during a race that she was less likely to win - but it didn't make sense about the Combined). But when you think back on last year's Olympics, after Shiffrin won the GS Gold, the media exploded about her opportunity to win all 5 events and she became distracted by all of the media attention. She took silver in the Combined (possibly a disappointment given her dominance in Slalom) and she didn't even podium in Slalom, which was surely a huge disappointment, even though she had nothing to prove having already won Slalom Gold in the previous Olympics.
Understandably, she wanted to focus during the Worlds (after winning Super G) on GS and SL, and it paid off.
This article was an excellent window into her world. Another facet of her life that I found amazing. Several years ago, when Shiffrin was just a teenager herself and in Sweden for these same events, she befriended a young Swedish girl whom was battling leukemia. She made sure that the girl was in the finish area for the Slalom on Saturday that Shiffrin won in spectacular fashion on the strength of her 2nd run. Then she gave the girl a huge bear hug, proving that she is also inspired by the battles that countless people face. In my mind Mikaela Shiffrin has to be the most extraordinary athlete that I have ever seen.
Where Vonn is unabashedly outspoken and can cause a stir with her words, Shiffrin is also supremely confident in her approach. I found this article from Amanda Ruggeri that is very good in my opinion. It seems she writes quite a bit about ski racing with a lot of knowledge. I will have to read more from her. https://deadspin.com/mikaela-shiffrin-rules-the-world-by-knowing-what-she-ca-1832703087 That's the whole article, but the guts of it, that really impressed me is as follows:
The championships, of course, were much different. There were expectations. Lots of them. And they seemed, at least at one point, to rub Shiffrin the wrong way.
Requiring one run of slalom and one run of downhill, the combined event seemed suited to Shiffrin, who is fast becoming an all-around star. But she sat it out. It was a decision she struggled with. “I have been going back and forth on this decision so much, it feels like a game of ping pong in my head,” she wrote on Instagram. But the reasons were classic Shiffrin. She was focusing on winning three events instead of stretching herself to four (or, if she’d done the team event or downhill, five or six). She was prioritizing her energy over a record, her health over numbers.
"The most difficult thing” of the season, she went on, “has been balancing my desire to race as much as possible with managing my energy levels both physically and mentally and not taking anything for granted.”
To other athletes, well aware (and perhaps a little envious) that Shiffrin could have a shot at more medals and was choosing not to go for it, this did not compute.
“She could have won everything,” Lindsey Vonn told reporters. “I’m a racer and I want to race in every single race that I possibly can. I respect her decision. It’s obviously her decision. But she has the potential and 100 percent the capability of getting a medal in all five disciplines. So I don’t personally understand it.”
For all of the attempts to describe Shiffrin as “taking the torch” from Vonn, for all the probability that Shiffrin will indeed become the woman to smash Vonn’s own records, the two racers couldn’t be more different. It’s worth noting that when Vonn was closer to Shiffrin’s age, she too seemed a little less focused on records: “My goal is always to just win the next race,” she told reporters at 27.
Yet even then, Vonn was still talking about victories. When Shiffrin talks about her approach, she talks about making good turns.
It goes without saying that every athlete at this level wants to win, badly. But Shiffrin may have tapped her full potential by trying to keep her focus on the process, not the outcome.
And for her, a big part of being able to make those good turns is having the energy to do so. That has meant being strategic—and, for all of her multi-discipline racing, relatively focused—on which events she enters.
Just compare the two athletes. In her best season, 2011–12, Vonn, the most successful female racer of all time, took 12 victories in 37 races. That’s a win rate of just under a third. Shiffrin’s victory rate thus far this year is 65 percent. Vonn is famously likely to go big or go home—meaning her record is scattered with DNFs from crashing, while Shiffrin, no matter how aggressive she can be, hardly ever pushes so far to the edge of her limits. Another potential difference? Vonn, who got her start as a slalom skier before becoming a speed queen, was spreading herself across more disciplines. Even with her successful entries into super-G and downhill, so far this season Shiffrin has done just five speed events on the World Cup tour, compared to 15 in GS and slalom. By the same point of the year in the 2011–12 season, Vonn had done 20 World Cup races too, but 10 of them were technical events. Vonn also had done nine downhill training runs, exactly like World Cup downhill races in everything but prestige (including the toll on one’s energy), in addition.
As the racers both know all too well, the more disciplines you race, the tougher everything becomes. The disciplines all require different skill sets, mentalities and approaches. And more concretely, every hour you spend running slalom gates is a day you’re not practicing downhill—and vice versa. This is why Slovenian all-rounder Tina Maze was so extraordinary. It’s also why, at times, she was so tired, tired enough to tell a young Shiffrin never to compete in every event.
So it’s little wonder that Vonn’s comments on whether Shiffrin should have done more events seemed to ruffle Shiffrin, who has good reason to think her personal approach isn’t up for criticism ... and perhaps certainly not from an athlete like Vonn, who, her stunning success aside, was just forced into retirement from pushing, and injuring, her body too much over the years.
“As the one who has been trying to race in every discipline this season, and who has won in five disciplines this season alone, I can tell you that not a single one of those wins was ‘easy,’” Shiffrin shot back. “There is no such thing as an easy win. From the outside, people see the records and stats. As I have said, those numbers dehumanize the sport and what every athlete is trying to achieve. What I see is an enormous mixture of work, training, joy, heartache, motivation, laughs, stress, sleepless nights, triumph, pain, doubt, certainty, more doubt, more work, more training, surprises, delayed flights, canceled flights, lost luggage, long drives through the night, expense, more work, adventure, and some races mixed in there.”
She went on: “At 23, I’m still understanding my full potential as well as my limitations. But I have definitely learned not to let hubris dictate my expectations and goals. My goal has never been to break records for most WC wins, points or most medals at Word Champs. My goal is to be a true contender every time I step into the start, and to have the kind of longevity in my career that will allow me to look back when all is said and done and say that—for a vast majority of the duration of my career—I was able to compete and fight for that top step rather than being sidelined by getting burnt out or injured from pushing beyond my capacity.”
If you thought that last bit, in particular, seemed like a shot at Vonn, you wouldn’t be the only one. But it also describes Shiffrin’s approach to a T—one her team may have developed in part by looking at and learning from the experiences of other, older racers, but mostly, I think, because this style just suits her.
Sue and I watched all of the races during the Worlds in Are, Sweden and I also wondered why Shiffrin didn't race in the Combined or the Downhill. I thought maybe she didn't want to take the spotlight from Vonn during her final race in the Downhill (at least not during a race that she was less likely to win - but it didn't make sense about the Combined). But when you think back on last year's Olympics, after Shiffrin won the GS Gold, the media exploded about her opportunity to win all 5 events and she became distracted by all of the media attention. She took silver in the Combined (possibly a disappointment given her dominance in Slalom) and she didn't even podium in Slalom, which was surely a huge disappointment, even though she had nothing to prove having already won Slalom Gold in the previous Olympics.
Understandably, she wanted to focus during the Worlds (after winning Super G) on GS and SL, and it paid off.
This article was an excellent window into her world. Another facet of her life that I found amazing. Several years ago, when Shiffrin was just a teenager herself and in Sweden for these same events, she befriended a young Swedish girl whom was battling leukemia. She made sure that the girl was in the finish area for the Slalom on Saturday that Shiffrin won in spectacular fashion on the strength of her 2nd run. Then she gave the girl a huge bear hug, proving that she is also inspired by the battles that countless people face. In my mind Mikaela Shiffrin has to be the most extraordinary athlete that I have ever seen.
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