ARE, Sweden (AP) \u2014 During her inexorable rise to someday becoming the most successful Alpine skier in history, Mikaela Shiffrin has been shooting some admiring glances at another young female athlete excelling at her chosen sport.<\/p>\n
And she, too, is emerging from the shadow of an all-time great.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody I\u2019ve been watching lately, and I\u2019m really excited for, is Naomi Osaka,\u201d Shiffrin said Tuesday. \u201cI think that she at least seems like a really nice, down-to-earth girl, trying to do her job and coming up the ranks in a sport that has Serena Williams, the face of tennis.<\/p>\n
\u201cWatching Osaka and seeing how she handles herself competing against one of her biggest idols has been pretty cool for me to see.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Osaka, the winner of the last two Grand Slam tennis tournaments and \u2014 at only 21 \u2014 the new No. 1 player in the world, is just starting on the long road to emulating Williams, Shiffrin is already close to eclipsing Lindsey Vonn\u2019s record-breaking exploits.<\/p>\n
Fifty-six World Cup victories. Two Olympic gold medals. Four world championship golds, with possibly two more coming in Are, Sweden, this week. Shiffrin is on course to obliterate perhaps every skiing record in the book.<\/p>\n
At 23, and with Vonn newly retired, Shiffrin is the face of skiing \u2014 whether she likes it or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my own head, I\u2019m thinking about what I\u2019m going to have for lunch. I\u2019m not thinking, \u2018Oh, the face of ski racing,’\u201d she said, laughing.<\/p>\n
In Vonn\u2019s farewell news conference after concluding her show-stopping career with a bronze in the downhill on Sunday, she included Shiffrin when listing the ski racers she believes need to step up and promote the sport in the coming years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just about success,\u201d Vonn said. \u201cIt\u2019s about doing everything you can to promote (skiing). That\u2019s a part of your job as an athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shiffrin is belatedly coming around to that train of thought, even though she says being a poster girl doesn\u2019t come naturally to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m the most self-confident person out there but I feel comfortable in my own skin and I certainly feel comfortable on my skis,\u201d said the American, who described herself as \u201cnaturally a fairly introverted personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to believe that just being a really kind person and a good athlete and having success is enough to promote the sport, but it\u2019s not really. There needs to be some drama, some excitement, some really big personalities. For me, maybe I\u2019m growing into that.\u201d<\/p>\n
This enhanced self-belief perhaps explains why Shiffrin felt emboldened to race only three events at the world championships, despite external pressure to go for gold in every discipline. She has already won the super-G and has strong gold-medal chances in the giant slalom and slalom on Thursday and Saturday, respectively.<\/p>\n
Her decision to skip last week\u2019s Alpine combined, in which she would have been the favorite,\u00a0surprised Vonn and Bode Miller<\/a>\u00a0. Indeed, Vonn said she didn\u2019t understand it, saying Shiffrin had \u201c100 percent the capability\u201d of getting a medal in all five disciplines.<\/p>\n