American Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin admitted she was “relieved” after winning the silver medal in the super-giant slalom at the World Alpine Skiing Championships in Courchevel and Meribel, but could not stay positive amid continued questions about her failure at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.
“I didn’t think I would be able to drive well on this track. I was fighting in my head before the start. The tension is not gone yet, but I definitely feel relief now”, said Mikaela Shiffrin after the race. “The last two or three weeks and all of last year I had to answer at least a hundred questions about the World Championships, whether I was afraid it would be like last year. I survived the Olympics, so I’m not going to die if I don’t win a medal at the Worlds championship. I get asked all the time and always the same thing and it’s so hard to keep balance and answer and stay positive”, added she.
In the alpine combined on Monday, Mikaela Shiffrin was on track to win the gold medal, but with just three gates left in the slalom, she made a mistake and dropped out of the race. This performance led to many comparisons with what happened in Beijing a year ago, where the American was eliminated in the first runs of the slalom and giant slalom, as well as in the combined slalom.
