CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin isn’t just narrowing her focus for the Milan Cortina Olympics after struggling in Beijing four years ago. She’s cutting her race program in half after two serious crashes since 2022.
The American skiing standout will race only her core events of slalom and giant slalom, plus team combined — which for her is a slalom run, U.S. head coach Paul Kristofic told The Associated Press on Thursday.
That’s compared to the six events she entered in 2022 — when she didn’t finish three races and didn’t win a medal.
Shiffrin entered one World Cup super-G this season at St. Moritz, Switzerland, in December and performed well until missing the final gate. She was pleased by that performance but then didn’t race any other super-Gs.
“That (decision) was made quite a while ago, to focus on slalom and GS,” Kristofic said.
Shiffrin won a World Cup super-G at Cortina in 2019 and has won medals in every color in the event at world championships, including a bronze at the 2021 edition in Cortina.
But Shiffrin crashed in downhill at Cortina in January 2024 and then had more injuries after a nasty fall in giant slalom at Killington, Vermont, last season.
Kristofic believes Shiffrin’s more streamlined approach focusing on slalom (the event in which she has won 71 of her record 108 World Cup victories) and giant slalom (22 World Cup victories), will help her “only positively.”
“You can get spread very thin when you’re chasing after multiple disciplines between speed and tech,” Kristofic said. “So often your preparation gets compromised because you need to prioritize one or the other. So ultimately you run out of time to really prepare yourself to 100% be on point in your key disciplines.
“So I think that narrowed focus has helped her stay on point with what she’s trying to get done. And that was certainly the plan coming into these Olympics.”
Shiffrin suffered a deep puncture wound to her abdomen in Killington and only returned to the podium in GS in her final race weekend before these Games less than two weeks ago.
Having struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder from the Killington crash, it’s been a challenge both physically and mentally to regain her status in GS.
“There’s definitely two parts to that,” Kristofic said. “And that just took time and quite a bit of patience and just staying true to a plan and building every time we go out there.”
Lindsey Vonn shows off a brace on her injured left knee
While Shiffrin is not entering Sunday’s downhill, 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn plans to race despite tearing the ACL in her left knee last week.
Vonn posted video on social media of herself working out actively while wearing a large brace.
“I’m sure she’ll have everything dialed in as ready as possible,” Kristofic said. “She’s made it clear she’s going to push and we’ll see how things evolve through the training runs into the race.”
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US women have medal chances in every event
Vonn has dominated in downhill this season and Jacqueline Wiles and Breezy Johnson have also been on the podium, as has Paula Moltzan on the tech side with Shiffrin. It all sets up the possibility that the U.S. women could medal in every race at the Olympics.
Even after Vonn’s injury.
“It certainly can still be the case,” Kristofic said. “I think everybody’s well aware that we have that capacity, and not just with one athlete, but with multiple. … We’re in a good spot coming into these games.”
Vonn-Shiffrin combined ‘dream team’ not set yet
Until her injury, Vonn seemed like a lock to pair with Shiffrin in the team combined for a “ skiing dream team.”
Now nobody knows how she will perform.
Not specifically addressing Vonn’s status, Kristofic said the pairings for the four U.S. teams will be made after Sunday’s downhill.
“We definitely wanted to keep the downhill here in Cortina in play for the selection of that team,” he said. “We just need to see how things evolve.”
At worlds last year, the team of Johnson and Shiffrin won gold. So does their history together play a factor in the selection?
“It will be objective performance that will define what our teams look like," Kristofic said. “I know there’s lots of fanfare around how people would like to see it, but in the end my job is to put the best pairings together so we can perform and get a medal and potentially win.”
The slalom rankings are already set, with Shiffrin in the top spot followed by Moltzan, Nina O’Brien and AJ Hurt.
The team combined consists of one skier racing a downhill run and another racing a slalom run and them combining the times together to determine the results.
Is there any discussion with the athletes during the selection process?
“There’s always discussion with athletes,” Kristofic said. “But in the end it’s a coach’s decision.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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