Rivals honoured to race in Shiffrin era but determined to dethrone queen of the slopes

Yanquing - Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) is heavily favoured to extend her record as one of the most dominant Alpine skiers the sport has ever seen when the Beijing 2022 women's programme gets underway with the giant slalom on Monday 7th February.

Shiffrin already has three Olympic and 11 world championship medals to her name, plus 73 world cup wins and four overall world cup titles. She is also the only skier, male or female, to win world cup races in all six disciplines.

"Skiing with the greatest skier of our time that is still active is a pretty cool thing," Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR), who took silver in the giant slalom behind Shiffrin at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, said.

"A lot of us have learned a lot from watching her ski. It's cool to still be here and still compete with her."

Not that Mowinckel and the rest of the women's best will step aside when Shiffrin takes to the slopes in search of a third Olympic gold. While the USA tops the overall rankings this season, her closest competitors have seen enough to encourage them she can be beaten.

"Whichever one of the two of us is better at the moment is winning,” Slovakia's Petra Vlhova (SVK) said.

The 26-year-old has more than proved that in the slalom, Shiffrin’s favourite discipline. Vlhova has got the better of the Sochi 2014 champion five times this season, with Shiffrin winning twice.

"Rivalry in sport attracts (the) interest of the general public," Vlhova said. "The people like to talk about it a lot."

The battle between the duo in the technical disciplines is likely to be one of the highlights of the Games although, after a resurgent season, current slalom world cup standings leader Sara Hector (SWE) also expects to feature in the medal shake-up.

So too Katharina Liensberger (AUT).

"For sure she is very inspiring because she had never won a race before," Ramona Siebenhofer (AUT) said of her teammate who flew to slalom and parallel slalom gold at the 2021 world championships, despite never previously topping a world cup podium. "These events are always good for surprises."

The likelihood of shocks in the speed events has increased after PyeongChang 2018 downhill champion Sofia Goggia (ITA) suffered a heavy crash in Cortina D'Ampezzo in late January. The 29-year-old had been flying, winning four of this season's five downhill races, but is fighting to regain fitness.

Compatriot Federica Brignone (ITA) will be hoping to roll back the years in the super-G, while the Swiss trio of Wendy Holdener, Michelle Gisin and Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) will be hoping the Olympic atmosphere propels them to repeat their medal successes of four years ago after a relatively quiet season so far.

But there is no doubt who the main attraction is.

"Every day we can learn something from her," Katie Hensien (USA) said of Shiffrin. "It’s eye-opening to see that possibility in an athlete.”

"Her level of skill and performance is unparalleled sometimes.”

Article courtesy of Olympic Information Service