Passed to three stakes to win a seventh world title, this Monday during the combined Worlds of Courchevel-Méribel, Mikaela Shiffrin, certainly disappointed, tried to put things into perspective by rejoicing in her very good performance, which had allowed her to return practically to height of Fédérica Brignone before getting on just before the finish.
The Beijing nightmare was still present in everyone’s mind. In particular that of the cursed of these last Olympic Winter Games Mikaela Shiffrin. So, when setting off for the combined slalom at the Courchevel-Méribel Worlds on Monday, the American champion was keen to immediately get back in the right direction by going for a seventh world title. Instead, the defending champion collected a… point zero. Three doors from the end of this slalom, when she had returned to eight hundredths of the future world champion Federica Brignone, Shiffrin indeed straddled and saw her chances of shining on the French snow disappear from the start.
Afterwards, the new holder of the number of victories in the World Cup among women (she managed the feat of dethroning Lindsey Vonn) and soon all genders combined (the Swede Ingemar Stenmark and his 86 successes is only at a length) was obviously struggling to hide his disappointment. However, she immediately tried to console herself by holding back her performance more than her performance. And the mere fact of having practically made up for all of her delay on Brignone despite the superb race of the Italian seemed to restore her heart.
Beijing? shiffrin don’t think about it
“I’m disappointed not to have finished the race and not to have had a medal, but at the same time I’m happy, because I skied really well (…) I had more or less caught up on ( Federica) Brignone, I didn’t know before the start if I would be able to do it. I’m happy to have at least succeeded in that, “appreciated in comments relayed by L’Equipe the quadruple winner of the big crystal globe, who expected that the bottom of the track could play tricks on skiers. “the surface became less compact, more unstable, I had seen it during the reconnaissance. It could be a tricky place if I was very fast, that’s what happened. »
The specter of Beijing inevitably looms again at the same time for the best skier in the world. The American doesn’t care. And at worst, if she were to relive the same nightmare, she assures that it would not spoil her season. “I’m not afraid it will happen again. What happened last year, I survived it. To choose between my season, where I had several incredible races, and not getting any medals at the Worlds, I would take my season. »
