It was well worth the wait for Shiffrin
DAEGWALLYEONG-MYEON, SOUTH KOREA — The waiting was the hardest part.
Mikaela Shiffrin had almost a week of pent-up anticipation before barrelling down a white carpet above a mountain village boasting this country’s coldest average temperatures that mercifully backed off Thursday in time for the women’s giant slalom.
Shiffrin had a plan: “Go, go, go” to gold. The American skiing sensation made the most of the moment at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre to collect her first title at the Pyeongchang Games with a 0.39-second victory with an inspiring performance in the women’s giant slalom.
Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway was second, followed by Federica Brignone of Italy in third.
But none could touch the reigning World Cup overall champion who hopes her performance is the first of a big medal haul in Korea.
“You don’t even know,” Shiffrin said of making her 2018 Winter Games debut four days later than planned. “Last night I was like, ’Are we ever going to race?’ “
The infamous kalbaram, or “knife wind,” had sabotaged the alpine skiing schedule in the Taebaek Mountains. But Shiffrin and her technical ski brethren awoke Thursday to sun rays spraying across a sparkling course.
She entered the second run Thursday needing a strong descent. Shiffrin, 22, wasted no time seizing the lead and maintaining it to the bottom. The result was particularly satisfying for the Vail, Colo., skier who at 18 became the youngest Olympic slalom gold medallist in history four years ago.
Although on track to become one of the greatest slalom skiers in history, Shiffrin has struggled with the GS, a technical event where the gates are separated at a greater distance than the slalom.
Shiffrin described it as a love-hate relationship.
“It has been a tough event for me, I don’t know, to get the good feeling in,” she said. “It’s more difficult for me to get a good rhythm in GS. I need to train it a lot. I need to be in a good mood. I need to be aggressive.”
Those feelings manifested themselves at the start of the second run in the afternoon.
“There were moments where I thought I don’t know if I’m good enough to do this,” Shiffrin acknowledged.
“Then there were moments I thought, ‘Who cares, you got to try.’ ”
It didn’t surprise her coach, Mike Day. “True champions are able to produce that whenever it’s needed,” he said.
Shiffrin held nothing back on a second run that put her on the icy edge of tumbling back to earth. Skiing in the penultimate position of the 30 top performers from the morning run, the American star felt she had no choice but to go big.
“Everyone wants gold,” Shiffrin said. “Everybody is skiing to win.”
She fell to the ground only at the finish line afterward. Shiffrin described it as her 15 seconds to let out the emotions.
The victory was all the more impressive because of the unpredictable weather that has forced so many schedule changes. Shiffrin was ready to ski all five alpine disciplines based on the original schedule.