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After a break of exactly 300 days, Mikaela Shiffrin will contest another World Cup race on Saturday (10.15am / ORF1) at Levi. The return of the three-time World Cup winner, planned for March after the sudden death of her father in Aare, averted the corona pandemic. “I am very excited and wonder how he will feel after such a long time,” said the 25-year-old. “I am grateful to be here at Levi.”
Since winning the Super-G World Cup on January 26 in Bansko, Shiffrin hasn’t run anymore, he had to let others win the ball. “Everyone deserves it. If you want to win you have to be fast and, above all, participate in races.” He had to skip the planned October comeback at the start of the season in Sölden due to back problems; Now it’s okay again, but it’s important to learn how to deal with it for your future career.
In preparation, the two-time Olympic champion and five-time world champion has been concentrating on slalom for the past three weeks, with all of Copper Mountain literally behind her. “That’s why I’ll call my next reindeer at Levi Copper,” Shiffrin said. With Rudolph (2013), Sven (2016), Mr. Gru (2018) and Ingemar (2019) the herd gained is already four strong animals. Only after Levi will you see how you will deal with the other disciplines. “I don’t plan all the events, I think less about the general classification than in previous years. Let’s see how it goes.”
In addition, she has not yet had a comparison with the others, said the six-time winner of the slalom classification. The strongest goalkeepers last winter were Petra Vlhova from Slovakia as the ball winner, Katharina Liensberger from Austria as third behind Shiffrin and Wendy Holdener from Switzerland. The whole year was very challenging, said the exceptional skier in a 35-minute video conversation before the start of the Torlauf season. “I’m sorry and I’ll be sorry for a long time. This is life, everyone has to deal with something.” She is still emotionally tired. “I’m also incredibly angry, not because of how the season ended, but because my dad died. That I was lonely.”
Dealing with the corona pandemic also demands a lot from her. You don’t want to risk getting infected, but you don’t want to be a risk to others either because you travel and play your sport, Shiffrin said. She thanked him for the opportunity to race in Finland. “I am so happy to be here, even if we have some restrictions.”
ÖSV: “They are in a good mood”
Indeed, the pandemic is ubiquitous even in the current model country of Finland – even entering the World Cup bubble at the Arctic Circle race location was a challenge in itself – just a negative corona test. allowed to enter the bubble, a charter flight brought the Trot World Cup from Zurich to Finland, and only after another negative test were athletes allowed to leave the airport building. However, the Swedes failed to reach the bladder (with their best runner Anna Swenn-Larsson): the entire team was quarantined by the Finnish authorities because a coach had tested positive.
The ÖSV riders, badly beaten in Sölden, want to start the World Cup season with a slalom podium. Racing director Christian Mitter confirms his team is “in a good mood.” “Not that we are going to celebrate a six-point win, but it looks pretty good. The last win was, of course, in November 2014 (Nicole Hosp in Aspen), but the season that just ended was the most successful since then with three third places. “We’re very wide and we’ll see if we can get to the top,” said Mitter, who has third Katharina Truppe and Liensberger from last year.(May / what)
