Mikaela Shiffrin shifts World Cup race schedule for season of ‘exploration’
Mikaela Shiffrin is altering her race schedule for the Alpine snowboarding World Cup season that begins in two weeks, planning for fewer slaloms whereas focusing extra on big slalom and super-G than previously.
“We’re calling it the exploration season,” she said. “It’s a chance to possibly shift focus a bit of bit. I’ve been doing this for 16 years, and my focus has kind of remained very secure. It’s at all times been round slalom, GS, with some bits of pace right here and there.
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“My total focus has at all times simply been to turn into a sooner ski racer, to be a greater ski racer, to push my limits inside the sport. That half will not be altering. I need to give myself a bit of bit extra freedom to ask the place I really feel curious and to form of comply with that itch a bit of bit. What are the issues that actually, actually encourage me to lock in? That’s the query I’m asking.”
Shiffrin is predicted to race the primary occasion of the season, an Oct. 24 big slalom in Sölden, Austria.
After Sölden, Shiffrin previously adopted the tour for the primary slaloms in November in Levi, Finland — the place she has gained 9 occasions — and Gurgl, Austria.
She plans to skip Levi and Gurgl this season, then race her first slalom of the season in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 29.
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Her slalom plan after that’s “a number of extra to be chosen from there,” in accordance with a press launch. Whether that can embrace the slalom on the World Championships in February in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, is to be decided.
Shiffrin will not be solely probably the most profitable World Cup ski racer in historical past — 110 wins — but in addition the most effective in slalom with 73 victories, plus Olympic gold medals within the occasion in 2014 and 2026 and 4 consecutive World Championships titles from 2013-19.
“After this Olympic season and this Olympic cycle, I’ve been type of reflecting, asking questions which are a bit of bit completely different than I usually ask myself, and it has been centered round what elements of this sport I need to be chasing,” she mentioned. “Not what I must be chasing. Not what is smart on paper.”
Shiffrin additionally owns a feminine document 22 World Cup GS wins, together with 2018 Olympic gold in that occasion.
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On Nov. 30, 2024, she crashed in a GS, puncturing indirect muscular tissues and practically piercing organs. As Shiffrin labored again up — from strolling usually once more to coaching GS once more months later — she handled what she referred to as “psychological obstacles.” She was recognized with post-traumatic stress dysfunction in February 2025, then returned to GS racing for the final three races of the 2024-25 season with a finest end of twenty fifth.
Shiffrin started the 2025-26 season fearing she would possibly fall out of the highest 30 within the GS rankings and that “may be form of the start of the tip of GS for me.”
Instead, she completed the season ranked fourth in GS in World Cup factors.
“Having the aim of really working again into the highest seven, having that truly occur and seeing that I’ve pace in GS, even the place worry exists, I can play with that,” she mentioned. “I can have a relationship with that worry. The final two years I’ve realized a lot about mentality and psychology and worry.”
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Shiffrin has raced the pace self-discipline of super-G 3 times within the final two years (with a finest end of twenty second) since a January 2024 crash in downhill, the opposite pace self-discipline, the place she sprained left leg ligaments.
She is the 2019 World champion in super-G, plus has 5 World Cup wins within the occasion, the latest in 2022.
“I do not need folks to listen to that I’m achieved with slalom,” she mentioned. “That’s not what I’m saying, and I do not need folks to listen to that slalom is not difficult anymore as a result of I’m positively not saying that. I do not need folks to get from this (that) she’s stepping again, as a result of that is not how this feels to me in any respect. If something, I’ve had a bit of bit extra of an intense prep season than I’ve ever had earlier than. I’m altering the query. Instead of asking how a lot can I presumably match into this upcoming season, I’m asking what occurs if I give myself sufficient house to discover the issues that I’m probably the most inquisitive about. I do not truly know the reply, in order that’s type of the purpose.”
Shiffrin mentioned that racing fewer slaloms — the occasion held most frequently — might permit her to spend extra time at residence in Colorado in the course of the October-to-March season, which is in any other case spent largely in Europe.
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Shiffrin additionally mentioned she might sooner or later shift focus again to slalom if she learns that she misses the occasion.
“I’m making an attempt one thing new right here, and it is completely different, and it’s a little scary,” she mentioned. “It’s fairly uncomfortable, and it is also very, very thrilling, and all of these issues can exist on the similar time.”
Mikaela Shiffrin
The Alpine snowboarding World Cup will cease in three completely different U.S. states.
