After 90 World Cup Wins, Mikaela Shiffrin Still Feels The Need to Prove Herself

This article originally appeared on Ski Mag

Mikaela Shiffrin came to the Killington World Cup cautiously optimistic. The knee she injured in training in early November finally stopped hurting. The injury prevented her from getting the mileage under her skis that she likes to get before races.

On the eve of the Killington Cup, Shiffrin noted: "Petra is damn fast, Lara is fast," giving credit to her Slovakian and Swiss rivals in slalom and giant slalom, respectively. "I'm fast, not damn fast. Not yet. I'll get there."

Shiffrin got there in a hurry. With a thundering crowd of 18,000 cheering her in Saturday's GS, Shiffrin gained confidence with each turn and finished third, 0.81 of a second behind winner Lara Gut-Behrami and 0.19 behind New Zealand's Alice Robinson.

The uncertainty she felt coming to Killington unfolded literally gate by gate in the GS. Shiffrin pushed from the start, felt "pretty uncertain" on the first two turns, and then said, "Okay, well, I survived that." By the middle of the course, she had found her rhythm, and the run, she said, was the best she had ever skied on Killington's Superstar trail.

Then Shiffrin roared back on Sunday, winning both slalom runs. It was her 90th World Cup victory -- and her sixth slalom win at Killington, the second most of anywhere on tour (she has won seven slaloms in Levi, Finland). She remains atop the World Cup rankings.

To win, Shiffrin had to stay ahead of Vlhova, who threw down a great second run on a very turny course. The Slovakian ended up in second place for the fifth time in the Killington slalom, 0.33 behind Shiffrin.

Shiffrin had to get scrappy on the second run, and every time she crossed an interval line -- painted red in the snow -- she heard the crowd roar ... and assumed she was behind and needed to go faster (in fact, she was ahead of Vlhova the whole way down).

"I haven’t seen my run, but what I felt was really good after skiing, like good pressure on the outside ski, a lot of pieces that I’ve been really hoping to feel today," she explained. "So I’m super happy about that."

Shiffrin last finished on the podium in the Killington slalom and GS in 2019. After the training crash earlier this month and the uncertainty of being able to ski in the Levi World Cup slaloms two weeks ago because of a bone bruise on her left tibial plateau, she was happy to be in a good place now -- and which could bode well for the coming season.

"It’s so much farther ahead than I was last season, which is sort of weird to say because last season was spectacular," Shiffrin noted. "I definitely didn’t feel like I could ski that way on this hill last year at this time."

Nor did Shiffrin think she could ski that way on this hill this year. When she crossed the finish line for the win, Shiffrin was teased by teammate Paula Moltzan -- who finished eighth in both Killington races.

"I said, 'You’re the one that said you couldn’t win this again, what are you doing?!'" said Moltzan. "She goes, 'You know, self-deprecation is the best form of confidence.'"

Moltzan then joked, "Let’s not teach any kids that that’s true!"

Living Up To Her Titles

It's her self-deprecation that, in part, makes Shiffrin so approachable and human. Labeled the G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time) in ski racing, she has been open about her struggles dealing with all-but-paralyzing pressure, expectations (others and her high bar), and disappointment. You name it. Fans at Killington have been given a front-row seat to how she has dealt with it all -- and then often won or finished on the podium. Back in 2016 -- the first year Killington hosted a FIS World Cup -- Shiffrin won the slalom, and it was only her 22nd World Cup win (and 21st in slalom).

Much has changed since then. She has learned that the thousands of ski-racing fans who come to Killington for the only women's World Cup in the U.S. just want a good show and don't care who wins. She has also become a legend in the sport over that time, with more World Cup wins than any human in history.

Still, she feels the need to live up to her titles. It's a feeling she is working through, digesting that she has earned those titles -- and will very likely earn many more. But as an athlete and a competitor, she still feels that if she wins, "if I show good skiing, then I have to do it more, and I have to earn it more," she said after finishing third in the Killington GS.

A student of the sport, Shiffrin has worked to take her mind off this pressure and direct it toward her skiing -- learning more and improving as much as possible. As she has improved, so has the rest of the field.

"We are like putting always to the next level," noted Vlhova after the slalom. "So I don’t know what’s going to happen in two years!"

"But yeah," she continued, "it’s tough to ski with Mikaela, but at the same time,

it is really good for me and for her as well, and also for our sport, for people who are watching. We are pushing each other, and this is something that maybe in 20 years, we will look back and know we had a really good fight."

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