Shiffrin eyes World Cup glory in Olympic year

PARIS: American skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin will kick off her bid for more World Cup dominance in Soelden on the weekend, the Austrian resort being the first stop of a season that also features the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing in February 2022.But that streak ended with a horrible season marked by the sudden death of her father in February 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and a back injury as she went winless for the first time since her debut campaign, 2011-12, when she was 16.

Her successful World Championships last February in Cortina d'Ampezzo, where she finished on the podium in all four of her races and won the combined, could serve as a blueprint for the Feb 4 to Feb 20 Beijing Olympics where she could win a third consecutive gold in slalom."I'd be far more disappointed if I had essentially skied slow or not stacked up for any of the World Cup races, but somehow won an individual or multiple medals at the Olympics," Shiffrin said.

Shiffrin will face a stiff challenge in the technical events not only from Vlhova but also Austrian Katharina Liensberger. The American, despite only being two years her senior, has hailed Liensberger as leading the new generation of skiers."Ideally, I'll be running a similar schedule to what I've had in years prior to last season, but we'll have to see how that goes," she said.

Veterans Beat Feuz of Switzerland and Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr, who won a speed double at the Cortina worlds, can again be expected to trouble the podium throughout the season, with the men's stand-out downhill races coming on the latter's home snow in the famed resort of Kitzbuehel in January.

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