AFP, Yanqing :
Mikaela Shiffrin will head to Beijing with a proven Olympic track record and on the back of World Cup form after a tumultuous year that has kept her in the spotlight as one of the world’s best alpine skiers.
Despite her medal haul, Shiffrin has insisted she keeps her three Olympic medals wrapped in socks and tucked away in a drawer, and only hung up her world championships medals to fill dead wall space.
It is indicative of the American’s steel-edged approach to ski racing that has been nurtured from a young age.
It is easy to forget that Shiffrin is still only 26 years old, having remarkably won her first world slalom gold in Schladming in 2013 aged just 17, two years after her World Cup debut.
The statistics are truly incredible. She went on to win three more world slalom titles in 2015, 2017 and 2019 as well the 2014 Olympic slalom title before claiming giant slalom gold and combined silver at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018.
Shiffrin, a three-time defending overall champion, has already notched up 73 wins in the World Cup, including 47 in slalom, leaving her within touching distance of retired former US teammate Lindsey Vonn’s female record of 82 World Cup wins.
She has also racked up victories in the giant slalom (14), combined (one), parallel slalom (four), city event (three), downhill (two) and super-G (four), making her the only skier, male or female, to have won in all FIS disciplines.
Coach Mike Day is in no doubt that Shiffrin is one of the greatest ever skiers.
“She is an extremely sound skier,” Day told AFP in an interview. “She’s built her fundamental base at a young age and it’s very solid.
