Three medals for Shiffrin
MERIBEL, France — One gold. Two silvers. And three gates away from another gold medal that slipped from her grasp in a patch of soft snow.
And that just was what Mikaela Shiffrin accomplished on the slopes at the world championships.
Off the slopes, the American skier dealt with a protest from environmentalists who mistakenly thought she was using a helicopter for training — resulting in security being brought in to protect her.
The helicopter flap was followed by an even bigger distraction when Shiffrin’s longtime personal coach, Mike Day, left her abruptly in the middle of the worlds after being told that Shiffrin planned to take a new direction with her staff after the season.
All of that during a recordbreaking season on the World Cup circuit where her every turn and move has drawn enormous scrutiny.
“It’s been a complete world championships — every emotion I could feel,” Shiffrin said after earning the silver medal in slalom on Saturday to conclude the women’s events. “I’m really proud when I look back at the last two weeks. And I also have things to learn as well . . . . How I handle situations in life and how I can improve on that.”
Shiffrin’s performance was a vast improvement on how she fared at last year’s Beijing Olympics, where she didn’t win a medal amid enormous expectations and didn’t finish three of her five races.
“We all know that I’ve experienced the situation where I have no medals,” Shiffrin said. “So I’m very, very appreciative to be on the silver side of things. Even if it’s not gold, it’s still been such a spectacular world championships and a spectacular season.”
The slalom — traditionally Shiffrin’s best event — was a tale of two vastly different runs.
Starting first in the opening leg, Shiffrin darted down between the blue and red gates with her usual world-beating precision, rapidly changing the direction of her fluorescent orange skis on the bright snow almost to perfection.
Then she took up her accustomed spot in the leader’s furlined hot seat and watched as only one skier, Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, finished anywhere close to her at a gap of 0.19 seconds.
Unheralded Canadian racer Laurence St-Germain stood third after the first run at a distant 0.61 behind Shiffrin.
The last contender down in the second run, Shiffrin heard the crowd roar when St-Germain took the lead and then also heard the reaction when Holdener looked ready to establish a huge lead over St-Germain before the Swiss skier lost control in a rut and went off course midway down.
Shiffrin then lost almost her entire advantage over St-Germain by the first checkpoint but held onto a slim lead in the middle section before eventually falling behind in the deep ruts at the bottom of the course, which went back and forth between shade and sun.
At the finish, Shiffrin didn’t seem to know what her result was at first, then seemed unperturbed when she realized that St-Germain beat her.
“It’s, for sure, fatigue,” Shiffrin said. “It’s been difficult just to keep the focus going. The second run the course set was also completely different and more speed in it and when the agility is a little missing because the energy is a little bit missing, then I’m not willing to take on this speed and to risk everything.”
Shiffrin did risk more in the slalom portion of the combined that opened the worlds — and ended up disqualified for straddling three gates from the finish while on track for gold.
“And if you look at Wendy today, putting her whole heart on the slope and going for gold . . . and then it’s just such a disappointing moment,” Shiffrin said. “In the blink of an eye, it’s all gone. I know what that feels like.”
Shiffrin won the slalom world title four times from 2013 to 2019 and took the bronze medal two years ago. She became the first skier, male or female, to win six medals in one discipline at the worlds.