‘Best GS skiing ever’ helps invincible Shiffrin defy fatigue to win again

Nothing can stop Mikaela Shiffrin winning right now. Not the world’s best female Alpine skiers. Not a schedule that has seen her take on five Audi FIS World Cup races in the past six days. Not a mad 24-hours that has seen sleep replaced by countless TV and media interviews. And not even the natural rhythms of her menstrual cycle.

Just 24 hours after becoming the most successful female World Cup skier of all time, the American did what comes utterly natural to her and won again on giant slalom skis in Kronplatz, Italy.

“Today I was quite tired and I am on not the best moment in my monthly cycle, so I am emotional and tired and I just want to sleep. (But) At the end of the day it’s really just two runs that are one minute long. You always have energy to do that,” Shiffrin said, giving an insight into the mental strength that has now delivered the 27-year-old 84 World Cup wins.

It is no wonder double men’s Olympic medallist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde said after win number 83 that his partner’s mindset is “just different”.

It was once again more than enough with the runaway leader of the overall season standings almost faultless on a slope she “loves”.

Smooth and in control in the morning’s first run, Shiffrin led reigning Olympic giant slalom champion Sara Hector by more than half-a-second at the halfway point. And despite Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel producing one of her best runs in years, Shiffrin simply extended her advantage in the afternoon, ignoring the lengthening shadows and the famously steep pitch, to finish 0.82 seconds clear of the field.

Mowinckel grabbed second and Hector third but both were quite happy to give the stage to a rival who has now won five of her past six World Cup GS races.

“I think between the second race in Kranjska Gora and these two races yesterday and today it’s the best GS skiing I ever did,” Shiffrin revealed. “I feel so good with it. I love the feeling I have on GS skis right now.”

Mowinckel, who won Olympic giant slalom silver back in 2018, is beginning to know how Shiffrin feels. The 30-year-old has taken time to get back to her best after tearing her ACL in 2019, but her first GS podium in almost three years combined with a super-G win in Cortina D’Ampezzo last week, has made her feel a whole lot better.

“For sure, I am super excited about today,” Mowinckle said. “It’s been challenging GS for me, it’s been good, it’s been not so great and now I am finally making everything fit together, the gear fits and the skiing fits.”

In a similar vein, Hector was delighted with her return to form at just the right time with the 2023 World Championships starting in just 12 days.

“I am so happy, it feels amazing. It was some tough weeks but now it feels so great to have been able to do it,” said Hector, whose third place marked a first podium spot in six GS races.

Lara Gut-Behrami produced the fastest run of the afternoon to jump up from 13th to fifth, after a morning run during which she was hampered by a broken ski. While Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova also kept her consistent, if unspectacular season going, taking fourth.

But the final word goes to Shiffrin, who will have the opportunity to match Ingemar Stenmark’s overall World Cup record of 86 victories at the weekend, when she races two slaloms in Spindleruv Mlyn (CZE).

“This season I was thinking if I could get four wins, five wins, maybe six then that was the most I could possibly get and that would be a great season. And now it is nine this season I think. That’s actually enough for me,” Shiffrin said.

“I don’t need more but I really like skiing this way, so I keep pushing. When I am in the start gate on the second run I am like, I don’t need it, but I want it, so I am going to try my best.”