Hey, people, the story\u2019s over here.<\/p>\n
A quick google on Tuesday morning of \u201cMikaela Shiffrin\u201d yielded the following:<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cLindsey Vonn crashes; Mikaela Shiffrin wins at world championships,\u201d \u2014 Denver Post.<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cLindsey Vonn crashes out of penultimate race at world championships,\u201d \u2014 Washington Post<\/p>\n
\u2022 \u201cMistakes never freak out Shiffrin, Miller says,\u201d \u2014 Reuters.<\/p>\n
Give The Washington Post credit for using penultimate \u2014 awesome \u2014 in a headline and Bode Miller more credit for actually analyzing a skiing\u00a0trend\u00a0but you\u2019re missing the story, folks.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s lead story out of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Are, Sweden,\u00a0is not Vonn crashing,<\/a> but Mikaela Shiffrin not only winning but winning a super-G.<\/a><\/p>\n We respect the heck out of Lindsey and think she\u2019s the GOAT<\/a> \u2014 for now\u00a0\u2014 but Mikaela winning super-G on skiing\u2019s biggest stage is a moment that could well alter the course of Alpine skiing history.<\/p>\n It\u2019s like the time that Vonn won giant slalom at worlds. Oh, wait, Vonn never did that. That is not a slight to Vonn, but a measure of how good Shiffrin is now. Already dominant in tech \u2014 she leads the World Cup in both giant slalom and slalom \u2014 Shiffrin\u2019s won every super-G she\u2019s started in 2018-19. Despite not clicking in for the Garmisch, Germany, super-G, she still leads the World Cup in that discipline, too.<\/p>\n Be it fair or unfair, some races are more equal than others, and Olympics and Worlds are really, really more equal.<\/p>\n In the immortal words of Dennis Hopper, \u201cPop quiz, hot shot,\u201d<\/a> who are the only ski racers to win three races \u2014 excluding the newly created team event and paper combineds; we\u2019ll explain shortly \u2014 at in one world championships in the modern era?<\/p>\n Austria\u2019s Toni Sailer\u00a0(four golds at 1956 Olympics in Cortina, Italy), France\u2019s Jean-Claude Killy (four golds at the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble on home snow), Croatia\u2019s Janica Kostelic (downhill, combined and slalom) in Bormio, Italy, in 2005, Sweden\u2019s Anja Parson (super-G combined and downhill) in some place called Are in 2007, and Ted Ligety in 2015 in Schladming, Austria (super-G, super-combined and GS).<\/p>\n Let the record state the reason Sailer and Killy won four golds at the Olympics \u2014 from 1948-1980, the Olympics doubled as worlds \u2014 is that the combined was a \u201cpaper\u201d race, assembled from results in the downhill, GS and slalom. (Talk about a combined.)<\/p>\n Only five people have won three races at Worlds. Only two women racers have done the triple, and Shiffrin\u2019s win on Tuesday in super-G gives her a shot in following\u00a0in those historic footsteps.<\/p>\n Shiffrin tweeted on Tuesday that she will not participate in Friday\u2019s combined. While we would have liked her chances in that race \u2014 slalomers generally are the favorites in the discipline \u2014 you\u2019ve got respect how Shiffrin has been managing the demands of the season.<\/p>\n Since she disclosed that she overdid the speed-tech combo between the ramp up to the Olympics and the games themselves last season, she has started in 24 events, including Tuesday. In those 24 starts \u2014 World Cup or championships \u2014 she\u2019s won 16 times, finished in the top five seven times and her \u201cworst\u201d finish was ninth during the first of two Lake Louise, Alberta, downhills.<\/p>\n Who are we to disagree?<\/p>\n By winning in super-G, Shiffrin has made the historic triple a much more realistic prospect. The GS on Feb. 14 and the slalom on Feb. 16, and she is the favorite in both, await.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the story, people.<\/p>\n But we are here to serve, so let\u2019s talk a little about Vonn.<\/p>\n \u2022 For elite athletes, the end comes quickly. Hall of Fame quarterbacks like Peyton Manning and Brett Favre just fell off a cliff during their final seasons. (We keep waiting for the same for Tom Brady, but \u2026). Ted Williams hit .254 and .316, the latter amazingly being paltry by his standards, during his final two seasons. Wayne Gretzky had all of nine goals during his final year with the Rangers in 1998-99. Michael Jordan wasn\u2019t his Air-ness with the Washington Wizards.<\/p>\n And each of these greats, just like Vonn, earned the right to leave on their own terms. We all should be rooting for her to finish during Sunday\u2019s downhill and take numerous curtain calls.<\/p>\n \u2022 Meanwhile, could we all take a chill pill on the hate-mongering from Vonn apparently not being a President Donald Trump fan.\u00a0\u201cWell I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president,\u201d Vonn said before the 2018 Olympics and some people were offended that she injected politics into the Olympics.<\/p>\nHistory in the making?<\/h2>\n
OK, a little Vonn talk<\/h2>\n