The last time the Olympic world really saw Mikaela Shiffrin was 2014. It was already clear then that she would be the next big thing. As an 18-year-old at the Sochi Games, she was doing things that 18-year-olds just didn’t do – such as becoming the youngest-ever Olympic slalom champion.
Nothing has been the same since.
In one world, she has become the undisputed greatest skier in history. She has won 108 World Cup races, 22 more than second-place Ingemar Stenmark, the Swedish former World Cup alpine ski racer who dominated the men’s circuit in the 1970s and ’80s. And Ms. Shriffrin is not slowing down. This season, she has won seven of eight World Cup slaloms – five of them, astonishingly, by more than one second. In the one she lost, she finished second by 0.14 seconds.
Why We Wrote This
The Olympic Games humble even top-ranked athletes and often reward those who can discipline their thoughts enough to unlock a state of effortless, instinctive flow.
Then there is the Olympics.
On Wednesday, Ms. Shiffrin will ski in the slalom, and the question is: Which Mikaela Shiffrin? The difference between the Olympic Mikaela Shiffrin and the Mikaela Shiffrin so conspicuous in the 206 weeks between Olympic Games is massive.
Her troubles at the 2022 Games, shortly after her father died, are well documented. Considered a medal hopeful in five events, she won no medals, failing to even finish the giant slalom, slalom, or combined event (which includes a downhill and slalom leg).
Here in Cortina, she has finished her two races, but slowly, by her standards. Her slalom leg in the combined event was the fourth-slowest of the 18 racers who finished. Her giant slalom was better, only 0.3 seconds off the podium, but only good for 11th.
Here is the problem that faced Ilia Malinin – and Ms. Shiffrin herself in Beijing. How does the athlete who is unquestionably the greatest in her sport manage the immensity of the Great American Olympic Hype Machine?
Mr. Malinin frankly admitted that he had failed to understand the weight of that pressure in his first Olympics before a disastrous performance in the men’s free skate. At her fourth Olympics, Ms. Shiffrin has a different challenge. With every race, the weight builds.
But in speaking with reporters after the giant slalom Sunday, she seemed to offer her own answer. Gold medalist Federica Brignone had come back from a major injury to ski here. “The mentality that she has to trust sending it down the hill” – to give everything, Ms. Shiffrin said, “I wish I could explain how impressive that is.”
Performances by Ms. Brignone as well as those by double gold American speedskater Jordan Stolz and triple gold Swiss Alpine skier Franjo von Allmen, hold the answer to the not-so-secret secret sauce. Ms. Shiffrin knows it, too. To win, you must get into that mental space where the skiing is free and the movements instinctive.
On the World Cup tour, Ms. Shiffrin essentially owns that space with a penthouse view. But how does she find it here on this biggest stage of winter sport?
For each athlete, the answer is different, and Ms. Shiffrin is clearly doing her best to find it. But she is no longer the 18-year-old up-and-comer who enthused about how much she had learned from watching her opponents. Now, everyone is watching her and expecting something more than the World Cup win, but an Olympic moment.
The catch, of course, is that Olympic moments are delivered precisely because athletes approach their performances as something ordinary – or at least routine.
Leonhard Foeger/Reuters
For Ms. Brignone, her Olympic moments came from the ability to let go.
Her injury in April completely changed her outlook. She went from wondering if she would ever ski again to standing in the start house of her home Olympics, thankful to be there.
“I think if I was coming here to win gold medals, I would go home with no medals. Coming here was already a miracle,” she said after the second of her gold medals, in the giant slalom. “I had everything that I wanted. So I came here just to enjoy it, try my best, and be grateful to be here at home.”
Before these Olympics, Ms. Brignone had 37 World Cup wins and three Olympic medals, though no golds. By changing her expectations, she found a new freedom.
“It was different. I needed to be here without the training that I wanted, the body that I wanted, but the good thing was that I had no pressure. It was already amazing just being here,” she added. “I just tried to enjoy every single moment of it.”
That certainly characterizes Mr. von Allmen.
The word “fun” could be emblazoned on his helmet. Asked about equaling the record of three Alpine gold medals at an Olympic Games, he said: “It sounds stupid, but I’m not really interested in what’s on the paper. For me, I’m really trying to enjoy the Olympics here, and maybe in a few years it will be important for me. But for now, it isn’t really.”
After his father’s death, Mr. von Allmen nearly quit skiing at 17. It took a GoFundMe campaign to save his career. In the summers, he still works as a professional carpenter. His priorities are just – different. Before every run, he tells himself: “Rock ’n’ roll and enjoy!” according to a profile on his Red Bull page.
American Ryan Cochrane-Siegle, who finished second to Mr. von Allmen in the super-G, said as much. “He’s such a fun skier to watch, and to learn from, too, but also his personality. He just seems like he’s having fun every single day,” he said.
“Obviously, he has a lot of hardware around his neck these days, but I feel like that is because he’s able to have so much fun,” he added.
The same could be said of speedskater Mr. Stolz, though in a different way. “Fun” isn’t exactly what leaps to mind. “Wry,” maybe.
In that twinkle is the slightest bit of condescension, but in a good way. He absolutely loves being a speedskater, and yes, winning at the Olympics is the crown jewel of his sport and the best way to remind Americans that speedskating does, in fact, exist in those other 206 weeks.
But in the end, why freak out over trying to impress a bunch of people who don’t follow the sport anyway? He’ll prepare, he’ll race, and maybe he’ll win. But even if he doesn’t, he’ll have more races in a few weeks, and those will be a blast, too.
Mr. Stolz admitted to being nervous before his 1,000-meter race. But in the end, he took it back to something he knew. “It’s repetition,” he said in the post-race press conference. “Winning a 1,000 meters is not something I don’t know how to do.”
After the journalists dispersed, Mr. Stolz and silver medalist Jenning de Boo found themselves walking through the arena together, talking shop. Yes, the two most dominant speedskating sprinters in the world were not giving each other death stares or talking trash ahead of their epic matchup in the 500 meters days later. They ambled through the empty halls comparing notes, sharing expectations, happily discussing their craft.
Because to them, clearly, speedstaking was fun. Even in the Olympics.
Associated Press
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Jacob Turcotte/Staff