Mikaela Shiffrin Opens Up on Fears in Skiing Hours Before Racing Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2023/24

Alpine skiing queen Mikaela Shiffrin is on a safari to reach 100 career wins in this World Cup season. The 28-year-old has recently clinched her 95th World Cup win, which rounded to 150 podium wins, a fraction away from virtuoso Ingemar Stenmark. As the Jasna Slovakia slopes welcomed her with open hearts, Shiffrin missed her beloved rival Petra Vlhova. Now, it’s time for another slope with which she has a brief history.

Cortina d’Ampezzo, one of the popular spots for Downhill racing, is girded up to host two Downhill and one Super-G women’s races. Her last Downhill victory came from St. Moritz, where she secured her latest Super-G win as well. With the onslaught of the 3-day extravaganza underway, the 2x Olympic gold medalist confronts her inherent professional trauma eating at her.

Despite thriving on pure champion energy, she has her moments of vacillation

Mikaela Shiffrin’s pursuit of a record World Cup win got shifted to the next stop from Cortina in 2023. “And of course it’s quite flat down here so you lose some speed,” said she who couldn’t make it to the podium in last year’s World Cup circuit. But keeping her 2018 bronze in mind, she may have gathered the courage to get to the slopes again. But a wee little fear still lingers. According to her Instagram post, the caption says, “I love it here…although yesterday was a little bit of a shock to the system being back on DH skis, and I had a couple “scary” moments on the course”. One thing may be still bothering her though. The recent Wengen Downhill accident of her boyfriend Aleksander Kilde, has kept the rest of his game in suspension.

So naturally, the woman who never left his side since day 1 has a fair idea of the backwash of a single misstep on the DH slope. Always harboring a fear of speed events, the 28-year-old had said, “..just with speed in general — is the factor of memorizing all of the terrain pieces.” However, the slalom queen doesn’t anymore feel the drive to run without her favorite rival, anyway.

Petra Vlhova’s absence has taken a toll

Standing atop the podium with her slalom win in Jasna, a gloomy Shiffrin said, “I’ve been thinking about [Vlhova] a lot the last 24 hours”. It’s a common feature among competitors to professionally laud each other on. Their counterparts snowball their focus, while also pointing out strengths and weaknesses.

READ MORE: Amid Boyfriend Aleksander Kilde Embracing More Surgeries, Mikaela Shiffrin Extends Heartfelt Support

She further said, “Honestly, this is just an enormous blow for the sport. It sucks. For me personally, over these years, I’ve grown to love the battles with her, and I think today she would be just so strong, so I really miss watching her ski today and having that battle.” Whether Vlhova’s absence will skyrocket or dim her performance is just a matter of hours now.

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