New York – is early in the afternoon on Tuesday and Mikaela Shifrin is sitting in a bar at the Midtown Manhattan, sipping water from the tap and nose on the fighting – and soon talks about how to get on snow.
For five days, it was removed from the completion of its season disturbed by injuries with a record 101. The World Cup victory, in the Sun Valley Resort World Cup final in Ketchum in Idaho. She should probably try to figure out how many hours he falls asleep on an abandoned beach this afternoon.
Instead, skier Alpine skiing juggles with some strength and aerobic exercise along with media and sponsorship duties, then flies to Austria for three days with his fiancé, Aleksander Kilde, Alpine champion in Norway before returning to Colorado to gain a little more time.
“There are like three different types of full -time jobs, and when I look at it, everything mapped, I like,” It’s a lot, “but I’m also excited,” says Shiffrin. It describes its victory in the Idaho season as “The perfect way to feel motivated to immerse in ski camps and everything to do a job to get my skiing to where I want it.”
And that’s already going on.
There is a sweet annual tradition among winter sports athletes at this time of year, which Shifrin often participated in. After months of life in the park, they begin to publish their photos in bathing suits with sand between the fingers. Shiffrin’s included Surfs and Windsurfs in the waves outside Hawaii.
In a few weeks, when she and her family go to Mexico for a few days of relaxation, it can be a bit. But that’s not where her mind is right now. He is wearing a black leather jacket over her training clothing. It ranges from perhaps the strangest and most tested season of his career.
Mikaela Shiffrin won 101. The World Cup race in her career on Thursday in the World Cup final, supporting her Olympic year. (Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)
In November in Killington, Vt., Shiffrin crashed in the middle of a giant slalom race, which was supposed to be its coronation as the first alpine skier with 100 victories at the World Cup. The accident changed it all and delayed the celebration for three months when she recovered from a puncture that remains a mystery.
It is not clear from the video what stabbed it just above the pelvic bone.
“We had the theory that maybe my pole somehow stuck, and I rolled over it and then kicked a little and that was what created a cave such a kind of trapped fluid, and that’s why I needed surgery,” she said. “This is the theory. Is it really difficult to say, which is a bit unpleasant because it is like, did it do it? Did it do something on the gate?”
In the end, it does not matter much, but Shifrin could hardly move for three weeks. When she finally returned to racing, the symptoms of post -traumatic stress disorder suffered. Another accident felt inevitable, which almost prevented the racing of a giant slalom, faster of the two technical disciplines in which it excels.
The mental and physical effects of the accident seriously reduced their time for snow this season. With the Olympics for less than a year away, he doesn’t try to cope with the lost time. He knows it’s impossible.
But it has already focused intensively on its training this summer, on snow and from it and tried to do everything that could be in the main form when it starts in October next season. The excitement of completing the season at the height certainly helped.
“I’m looking forward to it now,” she said. “If you asked me two weeks ago, I would like to:” I’m exhausted and I really don’t want to start this process. “Now I’m glad,” No, I have energy. ” That really changed the preparation. ”
There is also another motivation in the work: the Olympic Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy, and the next February are the most important competition in her sport. It will be her fourth Olympic Game and undoubtedly her most loaded competition.
In Beijing in 2022, Shifrin competed in all six events available: downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, combined and mixed team. She left China with three DNF and without medals.
“I feel like a joke right now,” she said in a raw moment in cold and falling snow.
This time he does not register for all competitions. Instead, they will focus on those who give her the best shot for the medal.
In Italy, he wants to have a different result and is doing everything she can to get to him. In a sense, this process began by returning to the starting cottage before the end of the recently completed season – the package was options – and continued to work through the mental blocks brought by the November accident.
“It’s the Olympic season,” she said, as if it had been gone for more than six months. “I want to start a year in Sölden (Austria), which is not blind to the element of fear so I can take it. And I just know it because we got a certain exhibition this year and started through it.”
It really was. At the moment and in about 300 days before the Olympics start, almost everything looks as if it were.
(Best photos after Thursday’s victory in the slalom in the World Cup finals: Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
