Mikaela Shiffrin is going to the Milano Cortina Olympics on a hot streak.
Shiffrin won her seventh World Cup slalom of the season on Sunday, Jan. 25, securing the season title in slalom even with two more races after the Olympics. It’s her ninth slalom title, breaking the previous record for globes in a single discipline set by Ingemar Stenmark (slalom and giant slalom) and Lindsey Vonn (downhill).
‘That’s crazy,’ Shiffrin said.
Shiffrin has won all but one slalom race this season, often by wide margins. This time she was 1.67 seconds ahead of Camille Rast of Switzerland.
Shiffrin let out a whoop after crossing the finish line, giving a small shake of her polls and blowing a kiss to fans.
‘It’s a very special place for me,’ Shiffrin said. ‘I’m happy to walk away from this weekend with another wonderful feeling.’
Shiffrin was third in the giant slalom on Saturday, Jan. 24, her first GS podium in two years.
Shiffrin is in perhaps the best form of her life in slalom – which is saying something considering 71 of her 108 career victories are in slalom. She has won eight of the last nine slalom races going back to last season.
The one outlier? She was second.
That makes Shiffrin a heavy favorite to win her second Olympic gold in slalom in Cortina, having won at the Sochi Games in 2014. She also is the Olympic champion in giant slalom from the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang.
‘The Olympics is a totally different challenge. I’ve had great Olympics, I’ve had tough Olympics,’ said Shiffrin, alluding to Beijing, where she posted DNFs in three races.
‘I try to go in with an open mind, good spirit, trust in my team. They’ve been amazing all season,’ she added. ‘We’re coming in with some strong athletes so think it’s time to enjoy that.’
Still, Shiffrin has to take confidence from how she’s skiing now. She’d won twice previously in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic, in 2019 and 2023, and dominated this race.
She drew bib No. 1 for the first run, and put down a run that no one could come close to touching. She finished the first run with a lead of 1.66 seconds on Wendy Holdener of Switzerland.
‘(Going first) was a little bit advantage,’ Shiffrin said. ‘We didn’t know how the surface was going to feel so I kind of didn’t have expectations. I just skied as hard as I could. By the time I could make a judgment on the hill, I was on the finish. I think everybody else could see there was some trickiness to handle.’
Despite the cushion, she came out of the gate pushing on the second run. She maintained her tight line as she flowed from one gate right into the next, never giving up any ground to her competitors as she won the second run as well.
‘Big push. Big mentality. I’m really happy with the day and the way we managed it,’ Shiffrin said. ‘Also from yesterday, it’s a good weekend.’
Now she’ll have a couple of weeks to train before her first race at the Olympics. Shiffrin is expected to do the slalom, giant slalom and team combined, and will be a medal favorite in all three.
The team combined is Feb. 10, the giant slalom is Feb. 15 and the slalom is Feb. 18.
‘Every race is different,’ Shiffrin said. ‘I’ve been skiing very strong and consistent the whole season, which is a great thing. But the other side of that is there’s a lot of expectations around the Olympics. My job is to focus on my skiing and put the expectations aside. That can be really hard at the Olympic Games.
‘It’s a new race and it requires full-gas mentality.’