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Mikaela Shiffrin claimed her first win in the Super G World Cup in nearly three years when she hit the slopes in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Sunday.
The American crossed the finish line in 1:13.62 to edge Italian Elena Curtoni and claim the victory. France's Romane Miradoli finished third.
The win also marked Shiffrin's 77th World Cup victory overall, and she is now just five wins shy of Lindsey's Vonn's record for most wins by a female skier.
Shiffrin finished fourth and sixth in the downhill competitions over the last two days.
"I felt very good the last days, but you never know, with super-G especially, you have to push so hard. It's always on the limit. Actually, you're pushing so hard, maybe you're not going to finish," Shiffrin said, per the Associated Press (h/t ESPN).
"I knew what my tactics should be, I was not thinking about what's going to happen in the finish until I got there. I had a very, very good run, so I'm happy with that."
The women's Alpine skiing World Cup resumes in Semmering, Austria, on Dec. 27 with two giant slaloms and a slalom.
Mikaela Shiffrin's quest for a medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics continues in the women's downhill competition.
The two-time Olympic gold medalist has experienced a tough time in Beijing through three alpine skiing events. She failed to finish in the slalom and giant slalom and was well off the medal stand in the Super-G.
Shiffrin has never competed in the Olympic downhill event, as her focus has typically been on the slalom events in which she earned her two gold medals.Â
The competition for the medal places should be wide open since FIS World Cup leader Sofia Goggia is simply fortunate to be in Beijing for the event.Â
The reigning Olympic downhill champion from Italy suffered leg injuries in a crash three weeks before the Games began. She will participate, but she is nowhere close to 100 percent.Â
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Women's Downhill Info
Date:Â Monday, February 14
Start Time:Â 10 p.m. ETÂ
TV:Â NBCÂ
Live Stream:Â NBCOlympics.com and Peacock
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Preview
Shiffrin has two more shots at an Olympic medal in Beijing, and the downhill competition could be an unlikely source of success for the American. She typically focuses on the giant slalom and slalom events on the World Cup circuit.Â
The 26-year-old has amended her mentality for the downhill with less focus on claiming a medal in the event, per Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press.
"It'll be really nice to race tomorrow. But you don't really come to the Olympics to feel nice," she said. "It's going to be intense and a little bit of nerves, for sure."
Shiffrin has a greater chance of earning a podium place because of Goggia's injury status.Â
The Italian has made it to China to defend her gold medal in the downhill, but she is far from 100 percent after suffering knee damage in a crash at the Super G in Cortina d'Ampezzo in late January.Â
Goggia has won four of the six women's downhill events on the FIS World Cup circuit this season, but her status at the top should be viewed as vulnerable because of the injury.
Switzerland's Corinne Suter is second in the World Cup event standings, and she is one of two other skiers to win a downhill event this season.
Super-G gold medalist Lara Gut-Behrami is the other woman to unseat Goggia from the top spot this season.
Switzerland has earned four of the nine medals awarded in women's alpine skiing so far in China. Suter and Gut-Behrami will both compete in the downhill, as well as Jasmine Flury, who took second behind Suter on January 29 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.Â
Austria has medal contenders as well in the form of Ramona Siebenhofer and Mirjam Puchner. Both have produced top-three finishes on the World Cup circuit this season.
Puchner finished second behind Gut-Behrami in the Super-G, and Siebenhofer sits third in the World Cup downhill standings behind Goggia and Suter.
Shiffrin is the lone American threat to the medal stand. Breezy Johnson, who has three second-place finishes this season in the downhill, is unable to compete because of a knee injury.
Slovakia's Petra Vlhova won alpine skiing gold in the women's slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Wednesday, beating out Austria's Katharina Liensberger by less than a tenth of a second.
Switzerland's Wendy Holdener took bronze in the event, while the top finishing American was Paula Moltzan, who came in eighth.
Here is a full rundown of the top 10 finishers, courtesy of the Olympics' official website:
1. Petra Vlhova (Slovakia): 1:44.98
2. Katharina Liensberger (Austria): 1:45.06
3. Wendy Holdener (Switzerland): 1:45.10
4. Lena Duerr (Germany): 1:45.17
5. Andreja Slokar (Slovenia): 1:45.20
6. Michelle Gisin (Switzerland): 1:45.58
7. Camille Rast (Switzerland): 1:45.75
8. Paula Moltzan (United States): 1:46.18
9. Anna Swenn Larsson (Sweden): 1:46.31
10. Aline Danioth (Switzerland): 1:46.64
While the 26-year-old Vlhova won world championship gold in the giant slalom in 2019 and silver in the slalom in 2021, Wednesday marked her first Olympic medal win of any color.
Vlhova, who became the first Slovakian skier to win Olympic gold in alpine skiing, came from well off the pace after the first run to earn the victory, per WCAX's Jack Fitzsimmons:
Impressively, Vlhova held off two skiers who had already won Olympic medals in their career entering Beijing.
Liensberger won silver in the team event four years ago in Pyeongchang, South Korea, plus she won gold in both the slalom and parallel giant slalom at the 2021 world championships.
Meanwhile, Holdener won a medal of each color at the Pyeongchang Games, including silver in the slalom.
One notable skier who did not figure into the medal equation was American Mikaela Shiffrin, who was unable to finish the race for a second consecutive event.
The three-time Olympic medalist and 11-time world championship medalist veered off course early in her first run just two days after crashing during the giant slalom.
According to ESPN's D'Arcy Maine, Shiffrin said after Wednesday's slalom disappointment: "It makes me second-guess the last 15 years, everything I thought I knew about my own skiing and slalom and racing mentality. Just processing a lot, for sure."
Lindsey Vonn, who was a three-time Olympic medalist for Team USA in her own right, offered support for Shiffrin on Twitter:
Shiffrin, 26, is one gold medal away from setting the career Olympic record for American alpine skiers with three. She is also just one medal of any kind away from tying Julia Mancuso for the most career Olympic medals won by a female American alpine skier.
While Shiffrin has not performed up to expectations in Beijing thus far, she is still scheduled to compete in the super-G, combined and downhill.
Shiffrin has never medaled in the downhill at the Olympics or world championships and has not medaled in the super-G in the Olympics, but she is a two-time super-G medalist at the world championships, plus the silver medalist in the combined at the 2018 Olympics and the combined gold medalist at the 2021 world championships.
Mikaela Shiffrin will try to bounce back from her crash out of the women's giant slalom with a strong performance in the women's slalom on Tuesday at the 2022 Winter Olympics.Â
Shiffrin is ranked second in the FIS World Cup standings in the slalom event, and she has to put the failure from her first event behind her to focus on winning medals throughout the rest of her alpine skiing program.Â
The 26-year-old American is expected to go head-to-head with Petra Vlhova from Slovakia for the gold medal in the women's slalom.
Vlhova leads the World Cup standings in the event and has finished in the top two places of every slalom event she entered this season.Â
The slalom event is split into two runs, just like the giant slalom, but the two favorites must be strong in both runs to back up their medal potential.  Â
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Women's Slalom Info
Run 1:Â Tuesday, February 8 at 9:15 p.m. ETÂ
Run 2:Â Wednesday, February 9 at 12:45 a.m. ETÂ
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Event Odds
Odds via DraftKings Sportsbook
Petra Vlhova (-110; bet $110 to win $100)
Mikaela Shiffrin (+135; bet $100 to win $135)Â
Wendy Holdener (+1100)
Anna Swenn-Larsson (+1800)
Katharina Liensberger (+1800)
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Preview
The women's slalom competition should be billed as a battle between Petra Vlhova and Mikaela Shiffrin.
Vlhova and Shiffrin are the only two winners of the event on the World Cup circuit this season.
Vlhova has five victories and two second-place finishes, while Shiffrin owns two wins and a trio of silver medals.Â
Only two other skiers finished in the top two in the seven World Cup events, so it seems unlikely that a surprise gold medalist emerges from the event.Â
Vlhova started her Olympics off with a 14th-place finish in the giant slalom, which was won by Sweden's Sara Hector.Â
The Slovakian should come into the two slalom runs with more confidence than Shiffrin because she finished her runs in the opening event of the women's alpine skiing program.
Shiffrin did not make it far down the giant slalom course before she crashed out in her gold-medal defense.Â
The slalom is the perfect event for Shiffrin to regain her confidence. She won the event as an 18-year-old in 2014 and took fourth in 2018.Â
Shiffrin also won the World Championships in the slalom discipline on four occasions, and she finished in the top two in the World Cup slalom standings in nine of the last 10 seasons.Â
Shiffrin and Vlhova finished second and third, respectively, behind Katharina Liensberger in the 2021 World Cup slalom standings.Â
Liensberger and Wendy Holdener both have one second-place finish and a single third-place mark on the World Cup circuit this season.Â
Those two athletes would be viewed as the dark horse gold-medal winners if Vlhova and Shiffrin do not top the standings.Â
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United States skier Mikaela Shiffrin won't be able to take part in this week's World Cup giant slalom and slalom races in Austria due to a positive COVID-19 test.
Shiffrin announced her positive test on Twitter, adding that she is "doing well" and is "following protocol" in isolation:
Per the Associated Press, Shiffrin joins Lara Gut-Behrami, Katharina Liensberger and Alice Robinson as skiers who have had to miss recent events due to COVID issues.
Shiffrin was scheduled to compete on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. She is leading the Alpine Ski World Cup overall standings with 750 total points.
Sofia Goggia ranks second with 635 points, but the AP noted the slalom and giant slalom were Shiffrin's best chances to maintain or increase that advantage because Goggia "has been virtually unbeatable in the speed events of downhill and super-G."
Speaking to reporters in November, Shiffrin said her plan for the Olympics is to "compete in every event I qualify for," but admitted that could change based on how her body responds.
I'm planning to race everything, but we'll know a lot more closer to the Games. When I went to South Korea (for the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics), I competed in the giant slalom race while still expecting to compete in everything. But after the slalom competition, I realised just how exhausting the previous six days had been. At that point I had to make a decision; [we decided] it wouldn't have been safe to race the Super-G or slalom at that point. So we needed to regroup and that's when we changed the program, and it could be a very similar thing in China.
There's no indication at this point that Shiffrin's positive test will impact her preparation for the Winter Olympics.
The 2022 Games are scheduled to take place from Feb. 4 to Feb. 20 in Beijing. Shiffrin has won three Olympic medals in her career, including gold in the slalom (2014) and giant slalom (2018).
American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin tied Ingemar Stenmark's 32-year-old record for victories in a single discipline with her 46th career win in women's slalom at the 2021 FIS Alpine World Cup in Killington, Vermont, on Sunday.
The win was also her fifth straight slalom title at Killington. She now has 71 World Cup victories overall, good for third on the all-time list.
Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic champion, beat out Petra Vlhova in the event. She trailed the 26-year-old by 0.20 seconds after the first run but was able to come back and beat the Slovak by 0.75 seconds in the second run. Vlhova made an error during her second run, paving way for Shiffrin to capture the victory.
Swiss 28-year-old Wendy Holdener finished third.
Shiffrin, who hails from Vail, Colorado, explained her mentality heading into the second run during an interview on NBC Sports.
âAt my top speed, this run, I donât know if I can ski faster slalom than that,â Shiffrin said. âMy mentality was super aggressive [on the second run]. Thatâs really how I need to be for both runs.â
The 26-year-old told reporters that she wasn't aware that the record was 46 wins. She said her focus has never been on the numbers:
âI won't say it's not meaningful, it certainly is, but I'm trying not to focus on those numbers. The closer I get to these marks, it's hard not to think about it, and want that. I think any person would want to have those records that are named, but everybody on the mountain today wants to win, and just wanting it is not enough to actually do it ⌠wanting it doesn't do anything for you to actually do the work or ski well enough to make that happen.â
Shiffrin, who trained at the Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont as a teenager, won the season-opening slalom in Austria, but she finished second behind Vlhova in both slalom events in Finland last week.
Shiffrin's win on Sunday put her ahead of Vlhova in the overall World Cup standings. The next slalom events will take place in December in France and Austria.
Mikaela Shiffrin didn't want to drive home. The blizzard roaring outside her car windows wouldn't let up. Snow pelted down as if it were angryârebelling against something, someone. Shiffrin, riding with her mother, Eileen, thought it was a sign. A sign that she shouldn't be in the United States. She should have been in Italy, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, competing in the World Cup Skiing Finals, but the event was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The snow raged on, turning a two-hour drive from Denver to Edwards, Colorado, into an eight-hour feat. A nightmare drive to culminate a nightmare season in which the people Shiffrin loved most fell away, one by one. First, her grandmother, her "Nana," Eileen's mother, Pauline Condron, died in October at 98 years old. Then, in February, Mikaela's father, Jeff, died at 65 after an accident at the family's home. Mikaela and Eileen were in Europe when Jeff suffered a head injury but were able to return to be at his side in the hospital before he passed.
When Mikaela and Eileen finally walked into their home on this dreary day in March, Mikaela felt the strange sensation of familiarity and distance at onceâoccupying a place as one person and then returning to it as another.
She could feel the little girl she used to be. Back when things were normal. She felt her father's presence in every corner, on every wall. She heard him. The creak of the garage door opening when he used to come home after work, when she'd squeal, "Dad's home!" The way he used to ask her about her races: "No, not how you placed," he'd say, breaking into a smile. "That's not what it's about. Did you make any good turns?"
But she's no longer 10, and he's no longer with her. And that's a reality she's come to realize she can't escape.
Mikaela, now 25, thought of where she'd sleep later that night. "I didn't want to be alone," she says. Couldn't be alone. Neither could her mother. So Mikaela started sleeping in her mother's bed every night. Still does.
Tangled, holding on to each other, especially when Mikaela wakes in the middle of the night from a bad dream, the two of them feel broken and comforted, peaceful and tormented.
But losing one parent has made Mikaela fearful of losing the other. What if it was my entire family? she thinks to herself. What if they were all in a car crash? A plane crash? She shudders with fear, thinking of losing her brother, Taylor, who is also living with them, along with Muffin, their beloved gray European shorthair cat. Mikaela brings her attention back to the bed. To her mom. She feels thankful. "Gratitude has been the hallmark of my survival," she says.
Eileen is Mikaela's coach, the person who understands her like nobody else. Mikaela calls her mom her edge, her best friend. The reason she wins.
And does she ever win. Mikaela has won two Olympic gold medals and four World Championship golds, in addition to her four straight World Cup season titles, 66 total World Cup wins and 43 World Cup Slalom wins. She is generally considered the best slalom skier of all time. "Mikaela is a once-in-a-century type athlete," says Bode Miller, a close friend and Olympic and World Championship gold medalist. And Eileen has been there at every turn. Spending a decade on the road with her daughter, sleeping in hotel rooms across Europe, flying, driving, chasing Mikaela's dream. The two even have their own language.
Taylor describes it as "baby talk." When Eileen senses Mikaela is down, she breaks out into goo-goo-ga-ga talk, in the silliest voice, as one would with a baby. Then Mikaela starts talking like a baby too, and they laugh and laugh. They forget about the pain. The pressure. The need to win.
They need each other now more than ever. Mikaela says they haven't even begun to truly grieve. "We've become more dependent on each other," Eileen adds.
But no baby talkânothing, reallyâcan take away the loss of a husband, the loss of a father.
Mikaela looks at herself in the mirror and realizes how much she's had to grow since the 2019-20 racing season began. Since her career began, really. For so long, she's been going, going, going, without a break. Flying, driving, skiing. Flying, driving, skiing. Empty hotel rooms. Swiss francs. It all caught up with her this year, and she couldn't excel on sheer talent and grit anymore. Her dominance on the slopes wavered. And now, without her Nana, without her dad, what is she even chasing?
Who is she without the people she loves?
Many friends have said to Eileen over the years, in a not-so-kind tone: When are you going to stop following your daughter around? They say it as if she's merely trotting behind Mikaela, making sure she eats her meals and gets her sleepânot as if she's coaching her into one of the world's most dominant athletes.
Mikaela has heard the jabs too. Do you really think that's healthy, that your mom is always there with you? And the two did try backing away gradually over the past year. Eileen skipped a couple of camps during the summer when her mother began to feel sick.
Mikaela felt different without her mom. It's lonely, being overseas. But Mikaela, Eileen and the family felt maybe it was time to try to explore some form of distance. In addition to her concern over Nana's health, Eileen wanted to spend more time with Jeff. And Mikaela felt like she should maybe try to spend some time on her own too.
"You've been my most stable factor. You've been my edge," Mikaela remembers telling her mom. "When people ask me what my secret is, it's you, Mom. Nobody else." She paused. "But, I don't feel comfortable continuing to ask you to put your life on hold."
Eileen was so used to splitting herself into 10 pieces to do everything, to be there for everyone. When her mother died, a few days before the 2019-20 season started in November, she regretted not having spent enough time with her. But it wasn't easy or simple going back and forth overseas, and there was never a good time to leave Mikaela. Every race was monumental. Every training was consequential.
Heartbroken, Eileen decided to step down as coach. Be with Jeff, with Taylor.
Mikaela was a wreck. She was extremely close with her Nana. Calls her an "angel." Nana used to wake up in the wee hours of the morning to watch Mikaela race on TV.
It didn't help that Mikaela was also still recovering from her breakup with her boyfriend a few months earlier.
She felt exhausted. She hadn't taken a break during or after her miraculous, record-setting 2018-19 season that included 17 World Cup victories and three World Championship medals. (Vreni Schneider's 14 victories in a season was a record that stood for 30 years. Mikaela's 17 might be hard for anyone to break ever.)
"There was so much pressure on her to continue to perform," says Jeff Lackie, one of her coaches at U.S. Ski & Snowboard and also her strength and conditioning coach. "At times, it was unimaginable how she was going to summon the energy to continue to do what she was doing. And yet she would. You just knew you were in the presence of greatness."
Mikaela started off the 2019-20 campaign strong, winning several races, but then she began to struggle. Began to compare herself to last season at every turn. Last season at this point, I had won this race, and now I'm not even on the podium. "I was feeling like the current version of myself was not as good as the previous version of myself," she says. Yet she was working harder than ever before. Somehow I'm worse. What am I doing wrong?
Frustrated, she worked even harder. "Her work ethic is unprecedented in our sport," says Paul Kristofic, the head women's alpine coach at U.S. Ski & Snowboard. "She never takes a single stretch of snow for granted."
Mikaela felt a little lost without her mom. She was used to their routines. They would go skiing together, between sessions, if Mikaela struggled; their legs would become part of the skis, and they'd fix whatever was wrong. Together. Or, before races. When Mikaela is nervous, her mom's voice is one of the few things that can calm her: "You've got the best slalom on this hill," Eileen often tells her.
They are similar. Both driven. Even have the same high-pitched, cheerful voice. "They are the other half of one soul, one heart," Taylor says. "When you take the two away from each other, they can't really thrive as well as when they are together."
But it isn't always easy. "It's exhausting trying to be Mikaela's coach," Eileen says. Not because of who her daughter is but because of what she is trying to achieve. "She is trying to do something very, very few athletes do."
Eileen returned to Europe after Christmas. Mikaela had been through a tough string of races, not winning one in seven tries starting December 3, only medaling in three and finishing an unthinkable 17th in a giant slalom event on December 17. Training a few days with her mom turned her around, starting with two straight first-place finishes on December 28 and 29. After that, the family agreed Eileen should stay. "I think going through that process brought us closer because we made an effort to try and have a 'normal' relationship," Eileen says.
It's a familiar feeling for some mothers and daughters as they get older. They try to sway from each other, try to be without each other, try to imagine not turning into each other. But some force draws them back in.
At the start of the new year, Mikaela began to feel like she was getting back on track mentally. She was finally able to let go of last season and view this season as its own. She performed magnificently in Bansko, Bulgaria, winning two of three races and claiming her fourth World Cup super-G. The best part? Both of her parents came to see her race. They had so much fun, laughing together. Being with one another.
The day after Jeff returned home, he had his accident. Mikaela was shattered. Again. Why are the people I love disappearing? What else is going to happen?
Memories flooded her. She was a baby again, age two, her parents telling her if she went skiing with them, they'd give her french fries and hot chocolate. She kept showing up, hoping for more hot chocolate.
What if I lose my mom?
She and Eileen stopped in Munich for their connecting flight on their way home. Huddled at the terminal, Mikaela tucked her face into her mother's neck. They wondered how much pain Jeff had suffered, how scared he must have been to not have them there after his accident. What he was thinking of as he was drifting away from them. How strong Taylor had to have been to deal with it all without them. How powerless he must have felt.
Eileen had lost the person she fell in love with when they were young and working 100-hour weeks at a Boston hospital. Their first date, they went on a jog, and eventually, they started skiing together. Jeff was completely hooked when he saw a sailboard for windsurfing in her apartment. Jeff was kind, always knowing what to say to comfort Eileen.
When he died, Mikaela lost her compass. No matter how famous she'd become, Jeff would always ask her if she wanted to keep skiing. Are you still enjoying yourself? Do you want to keep doing this? If not, it's OK if you stop right now.
She and her dad were so much alike. Both musically inclined (he was a classically trained pianist and played the violin and trumpet, while she plays guitar and sings). Intelligent. Assertive. Methodical. And if Mikaela's voice is Eileen's, her eyes are Jeff's: green hazel with eerily long eyelashes.
Those closest to Mikaela weren't sure if she'd ever race again.
She was devastated, taking a few weeks to herself, missing eight races. But she decided she wanted to rejoin the World Cup circuit in Germany in order to race on her dad's birthday, March 8.
She felt that would honor him. But it wasn't a race to her anymore. It wasn't about winning. It was about showing up.
Seeing who she really was.
Seeing what she was really made of.
She needed to prove to herself that she could do it. "That I could be a ski racer again," she says.
She felt racing on his birthday would distract her from the overwhelming feeling she is so accustomed to: that she has to win. "The burden, the pressure, of being a competitor, versus me just being out there as a human who is using this to provide a form of healing," she explains.
Facing the course for the first time again was calming. She felt close to her dad, being on the snow, the place he loved most. She felt guilty at first. Then grateful to have this escape. This thing she has loved since she was a child, back when her dad would ask her what she learned in school that day. "My ABCs," she would joke, and he'd make her sing them.
If I can just race again this season and face everything, seeing other athletes again, seeing the media again, showing my face, maybe I'll be OK.
So she mustered every bit of strength she could to train, to keep rising after any wave of grief set her down.
Then she found out the Germany races were canceled because there wasn't enough snow.
She wouldn't get to race on her dad's birthday.
She felt so disappointed, so let down. Then she berated herself for feeling that way.
There is a critic living inside Mikaela, constantly demanding she reach for a bar she can't ever touch because she is raising it every day.
Every race, every training, she inspects herself. She has to be this way. Because she is after something much deeper, much more difficult than dominance itself: sustaining dominance.
As weary as she felt, she wouldn't stop.
She headed to Ă re, Sweden, to prepare for the last few races before the World Cup finals. Her coaches told her that if she flew there and decided she didn't want to compete, she didn't have to. They were just proud of her for getting on the plane.
But Mikaela had her mind made up: She was racing. "More than the results, or prize money," she says, "those races were going to be good for my actual heart."
She was terrified, though, standing on top of the hill, looking out at the snow. It was much, much faster than the dry snow back home in Colorado. Her mind drifted.
Why did this have to happen to such an incredible guy?
Why couldn't he have been doing something else at that second?
Two questions bloomed into two more. Then three more. It was too emotional to train sometimes. She and Eileen would go for one of their runs. Then Mikaela would return to the course. Shut off the whys. The fears of the snow's speed.
She is used to shutting off fear as a ski racer. Pretending like it doesn't exist. Like it doesn't cross her mind every time that there is a chance that she could injure herself badly. Die.
Back at the gate, she stopped thinking about the what-ifs. The wins she had or didn't have. Her dad. Her mind went blank. She let her fear envelop her. She kicked out of the gate, leaving it all behind.
She flew.
Mikaela was proud of herself. She felt joy just being back. Feeling capable, excited. She felt ready for the races, which were to begin on a Thursday. But then Wednesday night, her coach received a text. All the races were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All of her efforts to push past grief, suck in her pain, were in vain. "I just felt empty," Shiffrin says.
Competing again had given her a new sense of purpose. Hope. To not have that anymore was almost cruel. Everyone kept asking Mikaela: "How are you feeling?" There was no answer that could describe her letdownâwhat it felt like to give everything in her body, her soul, to return, only to be told, it's over.
"There was all this buildup," she says. "Those races felt like they were going to be above the Olympics, above the World Cup. The most important races of my career. Then they get canceled."
She tried to think of what her dad would say to her. He'd probably tell her that she needs to maintain perspective. That other athletes lost their seasons too. That there are bigger things in the world. She cried, this time happy tears, remembering his words.
Did you make any good turns?
Mikaela had made some good turns. She had proved that she could get back out there.
And even if repeating last year's success didn't matter as much as before, she also had still managed to finish the season as the top earner on the World Cup circuit among men and women, for the fourth straight year.
Looking out at the snow one last time before flying home, she felt empty and full. She was still standing.
Taylor knew that when Mikaela and Eileen got back to Colorado, they'd have to all be there for one another.
"You can't check out," he told Mikaela one afternoon, three days after she had returned from overseas. "It's going to take all of us three to get through this. We can't just do this with just two of us. Or alone."
Something in Mikaela shifted. She was going to be strong, and she was going to throw herself into the immediate business...of figuring out the family's taxes. They're complicated, given that her earnings are not just in dollars but in Swiss francs and euros. Jeff had always taken care of them in the past.
Mikaela spent 12, sometimes 15 hours a day, figuring out her various expenses and business ventures. She tried to distract herself from the disappointment of the season, watching the TV show Poldark with her family. Learning YouTube dances. Singing and playing the guitar (she's working to master "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns N' Roses).
On a particularly hard day, Mikaela sensed her mom seemed down. Eileen sat at her desk and looked deflatedâbusy, as if she was trying to outwork her emotions. Eileen has held so much in, so long. "I'm still not out of shock," she says. She is still thinking of her mother's adorable giggle, her kind sense of humor. Sometimes she still goes to the phone to call her mother.
"You know what, Mom?" Mikaela said, snuggling up next to her and wrapping her arms around her in a giant bear hug. "You're doing amazing."
Eileen softened. Smiled. In that moment, daughter became mother and mother became daughter. Eileen let her protective instincts go. She needed to be taken care of too. She needed Mikaela to see that she was hurting tooâthat she was lost too. That sometimes even she doesn't have answers. That sometimes she just can't be Coach.
It felt good, leaning on her daughter. And, squeezing tightly, Mikaela didn't want to let her mom go. Then she looked at her mom. Really looked at her.
How lucky am I? Mikaela thought to herself. I'm loved.
               Â
Mirin Fader is a staff writer for B/R Mag. She's written for the Orange County Register, espnW.com, SI.com and Slam. Her work has been honored by the Associated Press Sports Editors, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, the Football Writers Association of America, the Los Angeles Press Club and the Best American Sports Writing series. Follow her on Twitter: @MirinFader.
Blanca Fernandez Ochoa, who became the first Spanish woman to win a medal at the Winter Olympics, was found dead in Spain at the age of 56 on Wednesday.Â
According to Jack Guy of CNN, she was last seen on Aug. 23, and a "massive search operation" was organized after her car was found Sunday. Her body was found in the mountains outside Madrid three days later.
The Spanish National Police tweeted a message offering condolences to her family and friends and thanking those who helped search for her.
Fernandez Ochoa competed in four separate Winter Olympics from 1980 to 1992.
She finished sixth in the women's giant slalom in the 1984 Sarajevo Games and fifth in the women's slalom in the 1988 Calgary Games. She won the bronze medal in the womenâs slalom at the 1992 Games in Albertville, France, and made history for her country in the process.
American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the slalom event at Kranjska Gora Ski Resort in the Czech Republic on Saturday to set a new FIS Alpine Ski World Cup record with her 15th victory of the season.
Nate Clark of NBC Sports noted Shiffrin broke a mark held for 30 years by Vreni Schneider of Switzerland, who secured 14 wins during the 1988-89 campaign.
It's the latest accolade in what's been a dominant season for the 23-year-old Colorado native.
Shiffrin has already clinched the overall World Cup title heading into next week's World Cup Finals at the Grandvalira-Soldeu ski resort in Andorra. She leads the women's standings in three of the five disciplines: Super-G, giant slalom and parallel slalom.
After finishing third in Friday's giant slalom event, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she was happy to bounce back to finish atop the podium Saturday, according to the Associated Press.
"Yesterday ... I felt disappointment from the first (run)," Shiffrin said. "So today I wanted to not protect something, like ski with risks, ski to fight, and see what was possible. It was really fun to ski, both runs."
Shiffrin has won at least four races in every season since 2013 and has tallied 38 over the last three years combined to establish herself as the sport's most complete racer.
Along with her Olympic and World Cup success, the American is a five-time FIS World Ski Championships gold medalist and has won the last four slalom world titles.
