{"id":64639,"date":"2019-10-21T14:50:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T20:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/shiffrin-embracing-more-pressure-after-record-setting-season\/"},"modified":"2019-10-21T20:50:01","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T20:50:01","slug":"shiffrin-embracing-more-pressure-after-record-setting-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/shiffrin-embracing-more-pressure-after-record-setting-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Shiffrin embracing more pressure after record-setting season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"In
In this 2018 photo, Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates during the medals ceremony at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, after winning a silver medal. Shiffrin will be counted on to carry her sport even more with the retirements of such big names as Lindsey Vonn, Marcel Hirscher and Aksel Lund Svindal.<\/span>Associated Press<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The sky\u2019s the limit for Mikaela Shiffrin after winning a record 17 World Cup races last season.<\/p>\n

And not just because she reached lofty heights as a passenger in an F-16 jet with the Air Force\u2019s Thunderbirds this offseason, either.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old ski racer from Colorado isn\u2019t saying she can replicate that kind of success on the slopes again.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not saying she can\u2019t, either.<\/p>\n

Shiffrin is thinking big as she heads into a season where she will be counted on to carry her sport even more with the retirements of stars like Lindsey Vonn , Marcel Hirscher and Aksel Lund Svindal.<\/p>\n

Although, Shiffrin doesn\u2019t view it as pressure so much as an opportunity \u2014 for her and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really have a lot of great athletes, great personalities,\u201d Shiffrin said as the World Cup season gets set to open Saturday with the women\u2019s giant slalom race in Soelden, Austria. \u201cSome of the other women, some of the other men, they are going to be excited that they can be stars.\u201d<\/p>\n

Make no mistake: The three-time overall World Cup winner is the undisputed face of the sport with Vonn and Svindal announcing their retirements a while back, and Hirscher revealing his decision to step away last month after winning eight overall titles. He captured 67 of his 245 World Cup races, trailing only Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Vonn (82) on the all-time list.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do feel like all of these retirements have definitely sort of rocked the boat a bit in the ski-racing world,\u201d said Shiffrin, who\u2019s won 60 World Cup races in 157 starts. \u201cFor me, Marcel\u2019s retirement, so far that\u2019s one of the most impactful \u2026 I\u2019ve really, really looked up to him and been inspired by his skiing for so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

She plans to sprinkle in a few more speed events this season since there are no Olympics or world championships. It\u2019s a way to test her limits.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m going to take the same mindset of listening to my body and see how it\u2019s feeling,\u201d the two-time Olympic champion said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an approach that served her well last season. A quick recap:<\/p>\n

\u2014 With her first super-G victory at Lake Louise last December, Shiffrin became the first athlete in FIS World Cup history to win in all six disciplines.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Earned her fourth-straight slalom title at the world championships in Are, Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Finished with 17 World Cup wins to eclipse the mark for most in a season (14) that was held by Vreni Schneider.<\/p>\n

For the 2019-20 season, she said she\u2019s setting realistic goals because, \u201cwho in their right mind can expect to keep repeating that forever?\u201d Shiffrin cracked of her recent success.<\/p>\n

\u201cI may be not always in my right mind so if anyone would expect that it would be me,\u201d she added. \u201cI talked a lot last year about not really paying attention to expectations and sort of knowing there\u2019s a difference between expectations versus standards and trying to keep my standards of my own skiing high and not having expectations. For whatever reason, that mindset clicked for me last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, she will keep that tactic.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do I out-do myself?\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cEvery year is different. You don\u2019t know who worked harder and got better. You have to roll with it and see what\u2019s possible. It\u2019s very unpredictable. That can be nerve-wracking.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for how long she plans to compete, well, it\u2019s based on various factors such as health and enjoyment.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy motivation doesn\u2019t come from breaking records,\u201d said Shiffrin, whose mom\/coach Eileen plans to accompany her as often as she can (Eileen\u2019s also helping care for Shiffrin\u2019s grandmother). \u201cI still find so much joy from skiing, and feeling my turns getting better and improving. As long as that\u2019s there, I\u2019m ready to keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really have a timeline. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019m going to make it until I\u2019m 30 or if I\u2019m going to retire before that or after that. I probably don\u2019t see myself going well beyond 30. But at same time, if I\u2019m at that point and I\u2019m still having an absolute blast and still reaching my own \u2026 standards of skiing, I\u2019ll keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was an eventful offseason for Shiffrin, who found time between training sessions to get settled into her new house , be a presenter with NBA rookie Zion Williamson at the Nickelodeon Kids\u2019 Choice Sports Awards and experience g-forces as a passenger on board an F-16.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was insane,\u201d Shiffrin said of her aircraft ride-along. \u201cThat\u2019s probably going to top my list of wildest things I\u2019ve done \u2014 or will do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Associated Press Writer Eric Willemsen contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three-time World Cup winner is the undisputed face of skiing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[378,120],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64639"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}