SHIFFRIN SHINES IN SUPER-G RACE
Skier could become first American to win four of five disciplines
Mikaela Shiffrin claimed her first season title in a speed discipline Thursday at the World Cup Finals in Andorra and put herself in position to become the first American to win four of the five major World Cup titles in one season.
Shiffrin, who turned 24 on Wednesday, had already clinched the overall title and the slalom title, and she claimed the super-G title by finishing fourth in Thursday’s super-G. She has an almost insurmountable lead in the giant slalom standings, a title that will be settled on Sunday. The only other major title is the downhill, and she raced only two of the eight downhills this season.
Shiffrin was fortunate in that two of the super-G races she elected not to race ultimately were cancelled because of weather, but she won all three of the World Cup super-Gs she entered prior to the World Cup Finals. She also won the super-G at the world championships last month.
Super-G was not a title she targeted at the beginning of the season, and she wasn’t even planning on racing that event at the World Cup Finals until the cancellation of two super-Gs last month on the Sochi Olympic course meant she would go to the finals still leading the super-G standings.
“The whole season, my coaches have been saying super-G is just kind of the icing on the cake, it’s like a bonus and, ‘Ski fast, ski well, enjoy it and don’t put any pressure on yourself,’ ” Shiffrin said in a conference call after Thursday’s race. “My mentality was much like it has been all season. I feel like I’ve been in this position where super-G has really clicked and it’s been super fun, but I keep getting to the finish and it keeps going well or even better than I expect. I keep coming to the finish like, ‘I don’t know where I’m going to stand,’ and then it ends up being really, really great.”
Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany won the race and Shiffrin finished 0.44 of a second behind her in a tie for fourth with Nicole Schmidhofer of Austria to claim the crystal globe that goes to season title winners.
“Today when I came through the finish I was like, ‘I don’t know, I didn’t nail my line, but I think I was skiing pretty fast and I made some good turns,’ ” Shiffrin said. “I definitely didn’t think it was enough to be in the lead, but it was aggressive enough that I felt like it could be enough to secure the globe. When I saw the standings, it was like this moment of, ‘Oh my gosh, this is unreal that actually happened.’ “
Lindsey Vonn won four season titles in 2010 and in 2012, but those included titles in the combined standings along with the overall, downhill and super-G crowns. Combined races (downhill or super-G plus slalom) are held only a few times a season. There were only two combined races in each of the seasons Vonn won combined titles, for example, and there was only one women’s combined event this season.