'Shiffrin is always Shiffrin': USA star wins St. Moritz downhill
Dec 12, 2023·Alpine Skiing
Even with 90 World Cup wins under her belt, Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) stood nervously around the leader's chair in St. Moritz on Saturday, waiting to see if her early downhill time would hold up.
And when pre-race favourite Sofia Goggia (ITA) failed to dislodge her, Shiffrin raised her arms in the air — more in shock than triumph — and then put her hand over her mouth in further disbelief.
If it's possible for Shiffrin's record-extending 91st World Cup win to have come as a surprise, this was it, as she won just her fourth downhill race, topping Goggia by 0.15 seconds, with Federica Brignone (ITA) two-hundredths further back in third.
"Winning World Cup races is hard and I never take it for granted," Shiffrin said in explaining her reaction to the victory.
"Especially this season, there's so many athletes who can win and I never expect to be in front of somebody. Every time I race I know I have to really earn that if I want to be on the podium and winning, and today is no different.
"I felt very good with my skiing, but at the very end I had one small mistake. I wasn't sure if the rest of the run was good enough."
But it was, giving the 28-year-old her first World Cup downhill victory since March 2022 and her third win of this season following two slalom triumphs.
"I think the biggest challenge with downhill, for me at least, is how hard you can push on the limit and stay clean and also find the fastest part of the turn where you're accelerating," Shiffrin said.
"On the turns I felt so much speed and momentum, which was wonderful."
That feeling led her to ski an aggressive, near-perfect top section with bib No.3 on a sunny day in the Swiss Alps, before she took a wide turn towards the end of the challenge to leave the door open for Goggia.
But the three-time defending World Cup downhill champion was not as fast through the speed traps as Shiffrin and made a similar error — "bigger than my mistake," Shiffrin said — forcing her to settle for second.
"My run was maybe not so clean as other downhills I did in the past," said Goggia, who won Friday's super-G. "But anyway I'm happy (all) the same because even with the mistake and with dirty lines, I'm still second."
Goggia seemed the least surprised of all about Shiffrin's victory, revealing that she trained downhill with the American last April and was impressed with her physical stamina.
"I knew that she (Shiffrin) could be really the one to beat today," Goggia said. "She has already won some downhills in her career, and Shiffrin is always Shiffrin — you can also expect that she comes first."
If Shiffrin's win was a surprise to most, Brignone's third place could also be considered as such, as the Italian giant slalom and super-G specialist reached only her second downhill podium in the last three-and-a-half years.
Skiing with bib No.1 a day after finishing fifth in Friday's super-G, Brignone enjoyed perhaps the cleanest run of all, skiing an error-free race to set a target time that only two others were able to surpass.
"I'm really happy about my performance, I did everything that I wanted to do," Brignone said. "I was smooth on the flat parts and aggressive on the turns — that's what I was looking for yesterday and I didn't find it."
Brignone will hope to keep that momentum going in Sunday's second super-G, but Shiffrin and Goggia will start as the favourites, with Goggia aiming to reclaim her position at the top of the podium.
"Tomorrow, it's another day," she said.
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