{"id":2453349,"date":"2020-01-16T22:56:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/shiffrin-fights-fatigue-in-quest-for-her-fourth-straight-overall\/"},"modified":"2020-01-16T22:56:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T05:56:00","slug":"shiffrin-fights-fatigue-in-quest-for-her-fourth-straight-overall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/shiffrin-fights-fatigue-in-quest-for-her-fourth-straight-overall\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiffrin fights fatigue in quest for her fourth straight overall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
United States’ Ryan Cochran Siegle speeds down the slope during training for an alpine ski, men’s World Cup downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. (AP Photo\/Marco Tacca)<\/strong>
AP | AP<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Mikaela Shiffrin has yet to win a race in 2020 and actually recently recorded a rare \u201cdid not finish\u201d in an event.<\/p>\n

The two-time Olympic gold medalist knows what some might be thinking: What is going on?<\/p>\n

Her response: Nothing that a little rest wouldn\u2019t fix. Only, there\u2019s no time.<\/p>\n

The American ski racer\u2019s quest for a fourth straight overall World Cup title seems tighter than usual at the midseason point. Shiffrin currently leads rival Petra Vlhova of Slovakia by 273 points, which is sizable but could be eclipsed in as little as a three-race span.<\/p>\n

Shiffrin does find it amusing that something may be considered \u201coff\u201d with her skiing. She\u2019s been on the podium in 10 of her 14 races this season \u2014 and three times as the winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are like, \u2018Oh, no, what\u2019s wrong?\u2019\u201d Shiffrin said Thursday. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Is this what you consider an off year for me?\u2019 It\u2019s kind of hilarious, actually. It\u2019s really funny to think that this would be what most people would consider a bad season or poor results. I\u2019ve been on most podiums and won multiple races. It\u2019s sort of like, \u2018OK, I\u2019ll take that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Shiffrin was so dominating in 2018-19 when she won 17 races and beat Vlhova by 849 points for the overall title.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople said everything looked so easy,\u201d said Shiffrin, who\u2019s the rare all-discipline racer. \u201cIt\u2019s not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Storied seasons prove difficult to duplicate.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, it looks like Petra\u2019s gaining more and more confidence with her skiing,\u201d said Shiffrin, who has 64 career World Cup wins, which trails only Marcel Hirscher (67), Lindsey Vonn (82) and Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark (86). \u201cShe\u2019s always been an incredible and very disciplined skier. But she\u2019s really finding the perfect rhythm with that skiing style.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vlhova has won the last two slalom races \u2014 Shiffrin\u2019s signature event \u2014 with Shiffrin taking second in Zagreb, Croatia, and then third in Flachau, Austria, two days ago.<\/p>\n

Sandwiched in between, Shiffrin turned in a \u201cdid not finish,\u201d when she slid out on her left hip during a sharp turn in her first run of an alpine combined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I go through something like these last couple of races, that makes it a little bit more obvious just how difficult it is to be on top and stay on top,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cEven last season, I was telling everybody, \u2018I don\u2019t expect this. This is unbelievable.\u2019 I\u2019m constantly going back to work every single race, because I don\u2019t expect this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, a report came out about teams video taping training sessions and included Shiffrin\u2019s feelings on the subject since she\u2019s constantly being filmed. She and her team try to maintain a low profile in training, but there\u2019s only so much privacy on the slopes. One of her concerns is someone showing up with no athlete training on the hill that day simply to film. And while she didn\u2019t mention any names, some came away with the impression she was directing it toward Vlhova\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

She wanted to clear that up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have so much respect for all my competitors. I have so much respect for the work they put into their own skiing to get to the top level,\u201d said Shiffrin, who turns 25 on March 13. \u201cI do sometimes wish that we could find a little bit of privacy in our training environment. But that\u2019s not how skiing works.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just wishful thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

This might be as well: A break. She said she could really use a few off days to recharge.<\/p>\n

But the women\u2019s World Cup tour rolls on to Sestriere, Italy, this weekend for a giant slalom and parallel GS. That\u2019s followed by several weeks of speed racing beginning in Bansko, Bulgaria. The next technical events are scheduled for Maribor, Slovenia, in mid-February.<\/p>\n

For the moment, she\u2019s unsure of her speed racing plans, only saying: \u201cWe\u2019re heading to Bansko with one day at a time from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s weighing the rewards of rest against racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I could get an actual day of rest that doesn\u2019t include driving six hours or having a strength session on top of in-season maintenance \u2026 Just like a little bit of a reset, then the motivation comes back really quickly,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m going to be able to raise my level of skiing again. It\u2019s just going to take a little bit of time. It won\u2019t even take that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayer fastest in training run for classic Swiss downhill<\/p>\n

WENGEN, Switzerland \u2014 Two-time Olympic champion Matthias Mayer was fastest in a training run for the classic Lauberhorn downhill that needs an assist from the weather to be completed as planned on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Mayer was 0.11 seconds faster than Mauro Caviezel on Thursday down the full 4.27-kilometer (2 2\/3-mile) course that is by far the longest on the World Cup circuit.<\/p>\n

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was third, 0.31 behind 2014 Olympic downhill gold medallist Mayer, as the season\u2019s two standout downhill racers focused on key sections of the course.<\/p>\n

World Cup downhill standings leader Dominik Paris clocked the fastest speed of 148 kph (92 mph), on a straight passage two minutes into the run under clear blue skies.<\/p>\n

Two-time Lauberhorn winner Beat Feuz was fastest on the top section overlooked by the Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau mountains, but eased off near the finish.<\/p>\n

In a strong showing by the American team, Ryan Cochran-Siegle was fifth after being second fastest in Tuesday\u2019s practice run behind Caviezel.<\/p>\n

Bryce Bennett was ninth and Steven Nyman 11th. Nyman will not join his teammates in the alpine combined event Friday which uses a shorter version of the storied Lauberhorn course.<\/p>\n

The 90th year of Switzerland\u2019s signature ski race faces challenging conditions Saturday. Snowfall is forecast overnight until close to the scheduled 12:30 p.m. (1130 GMT) start time.<\/p>\n

Organizers said they could switch to the lower start gate, making for a winning time around 1 minute, 50 seconds, if the icy racing surface cannot be cleared of snow.<\/p>\n

A heavy snowfall could also affect the traditional pre-race flyover by a Swiss airline passenger jet accompanied by military fighter jets.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

United States’ Ryan Cochran Siegle speeds down the slope during training for an alpine ski, men’s World Cup downhill in Wengen, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020. (AP Photo\/Marco Tacca)AP | AP Mikaela Shiffrin has yet to win a race in 2020 and actually recently recorded a rare \u201cdid not finish\u201d in an event. The two-time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 20:33:25","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}