Shiffrin edges closer to World Cup title

She left the door open, she feared.

“To be the best in the world with all of your peers through the 40-some races is huge”, she said.

Fresh off her 3rd consecutive Slalom World Championship victory, Mikaela will be wearing both of her designs during the North American World Cup stops at Squaw Valley, California and Aspen, Colorado for the Finals.

“I was anxious people would think I am too ambitious, or the overall is too lofty of a goal for me”. I know these guys have been working tirelessly in order to provide a really good World Cup for us. These two races are supremely important for the women for two big reasons: overall titles and qualifications for World Cup Finals (only the top 25 ranked skiers in each discipline qualify for the World Cup Finals).

Shiffrin had a.72 second advantage over Brignone at the second time-split, but lost the lead by the third split, where she was trailing by.03 seconds.

Road to Aspen: Shiffrin leads the overall World Cup standings with 1,523 points.

Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener was leading the event after the first run and was setting a blistering time in the second. Sarka Strachova of the Czech Republic was second, 1.03 seconds back, and Bernadette Schild of Austria finished third.

She was 15, and wearing bib No. 43 on November 16, 2010, at Copper Mountain for her first FIS race, a giant slalom.

Exhausted, she fed off the crowd’s energy.

Well, Shiffrin will not become the youngest person to win a World Cup overall.

“Even having a 270-something lead going into the last (five) races, that’s big”, said Shiffrin, who captured a GS title at Squaw during the 2014 USA championships. “It adds a little bit of pressure nearly”.

Shiffrin, who turns 22 on Monday, clinched the title after Slovakia’s Veronika Velez Zuzulova, her closest competitor, wiped out before Shiffrin’s run. By the time she hit the third interval split, Shiffrin trailed by 0.03 seconds.

“I’m happy to go into the U.S. races with the overall lead”, Shiffrin said.

Holdener went for it all right, but skied out with just a few slalom gates remaining.

Shiffrin said she has plenty of doubts, but also plenty of ambitions. “Sometimes, that happens. Sometimes, you fall”.

“She’s incredible, and at her age to have as many wins as she does, the stability that she has and the professionalism is awesome”. She has so much aggression. “But things weren’t going really well for me”.

Her celebration plans are modest – a well-earned nap.

While I find the inevitable comparisons between Shiffrin and Vonn to be odious – they generally don’t apply as Mikaela is from a tech background and Lindsey from speed and that can be like comparing apples and oranges – the one thing they may share is desire. It has been a true pleasure getting to work with her on the collection and we are excited to see where it leads to in the future.”.

Another woman, also a former Olympian and Squaw Valley champion, winning the 2103 U.S. National slalom title, knows this track well and what it takes to win there. There’s a GS race Friday, followed a day later by the slalom – her specialty.