The American great Mikaela Shiffrin is heading into the new season with some clearly defined targets, after injury disrupted the end of her campaign in 2023-24. She has called honing and perfecting her race craft an “addiction” as she looks set to focus more on the technical events of slalom, giant salmon and super-G this year, with downhill set to take a back seat moving forward.
Mikaela Shiffrin has been speaking about her goals for the 2024/25 season, with the American clear on her priorities after an injury-disrupted preparation.
Shiffrin won the downhill in St. Moritz in December last year, but crashed in the same event in Cortina D’Ampezzo in January, spraining ligaments in her left leg that led to a spell on the sidelines.
On the back of her injury, it looks like the downhill has not been featuring too highly in her training regime ahead of the upcoming season.
“I think this year my main plan is to focus on slalom, GS [giant slalom] and super-G,” Shiffrin told Eurosport.
Shiffrin continued: “My preparation last season, I only skied downhill, I couldn’t ski any super-G because we had too much snow on the super-G days.
“Last year my big goal was to improve in downhill so I could fight for potentially winning downhills, and then St. Moritz was incredible, but then I felt like my super-G was lacking.
“Anyway, with the crash in Cortina it made me think. The speed events are not something you can just do without real, proper preparation. Downhill is really challenging to do, one downhill takes three to four days to do with the training runs and everything. But super-G, I’m able to come more in and out with that. So, those are the priorities, and I’ll see how that goes.”
With a record 97 World Cup wins, Shiffrin does not have anything left to prove – but the 29-year-old has no plans to walk away from the sport.
She is motivated to keep working with countless hours of training in the gym and on the slopes – all of which means time apart from fiance Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, as he continues his recovery from a horror crash of his own in January.
“My main motivation is that I feel I have more to give to the sport,” Shiffrin said. “I have more in my body, that I can ski faster or fix my technique a little bit, just improve things here and there. So it’s like I’m not finished with what I want to give and what I want to get from the sport.
“And that’s like with wins aside, it’s just how I feel on the mountain.
“I’m always interested to see if I make one improvement today, can I get even better tomorrow? That’s just like an addiction for me.”
Shiffrin sounds keen to renew rivalries with some of her main competitors in the new season, including the likes of Sofia Goggia – the Italian also looking to make a comeback from injury, after sustaining a leg break in February.
“I’m at an interesting point in my career where I can be a big part of bringing more people to watch the sport and be excited about it,” Shiffrin said. “Hopefully that’s the purpose.
“With all the competitors we have right now, there are really interesting personalities, really great competitions and I love to be part of that.”