There were four competitors left to ski the slalom course in Schladming, Austria, in the final World Cup race in the discipline before the Beijing Olympics, and Mikaela Shiffrin watched them one-by-one as they attempted to break her time.
When none of them, including her fiercest rival Petra Vlhova, could best her, she buried her head in her hands and leaned onto a padded sponsorship banner at the bottom of the mountain. She couldn’t hide her emotion, or her tears.
“I’m just crying a lot lately,” Shiffrin told the race reporter.
For the casual fan who mostly follows Shiffrin’s career once every four years, the reaction may seem surprising. Over-the-top even. Doesn’t Shiffrin always win?
She doesn’t of course, but as one of the most successful American alpine skiers in history with 11 world championship medals, 73 World Cup victories and a three-time overall World Cup champion, it might seem like it.
But this victory was special. It marked her 47th career slalom title — making her the first skier, male or female, in history to record that many victories in a single discipline. Shiffrin, 26, wouldn’t let herself think too much about the record throughout the season, for fear of losing focus or letting the nerves get the best of her. After she tied Ingemar Stenmark’s long-standing record in Killington, Vermont in November, she said she hadn’t even realized such a feat had been possible that day.
“It’s human nature to want the records, and want the trophies, and for people to say good things about you, but I try not to get too caught up on the shiny objects,” Shiffrin told ESPN in December.
So when she broke the record on the mountain in Austria, she let herself, for a brief moment, recognize what she had accomplished, and perhaps more importantly, everything she had sacrificed to get there and the people who helped get her there.
Now entering her third Olympic Games this week in Beijing and with three Olympic medals already to her name, Shiffrin is, yet again,…
Source : espn
