Shiffrin entering Olympic season with more confidence but still skipping downhill after injuries

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SALZBURG, Austria (AP) — After two major crashes the last two seasons, one that led to a battle with PTSD and a worrisome drop in her rankings points, American skiing standout Mikaela Shiffrin is entering the upcoming Olympic season on a more positive note.

“My confidence is getting better, generally I feel more comfortable,” Shiffrin told The Associated Press in an interview on Thursday.

She's still not ready to race in downhills again, however, and might drop super-G as well in a reduced World Cup schedule ahead of the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

Shiffrin is content to compete in slalom and giant slalom — her two best disciplines — and maybe super-G as she rebuilds her confidence following two injury-marred campaigns. She says there is “no chance” she will compete in downhill this season, while super-G is off the schedule until at least mid-December.

The World Cup season starts with a women's giant slalom on an Austrian glacier on Oct. 25, followed by a men's race the next day.

Shiffrin has trained “a little bit of super-G” during the offseason, but the American says she is not ready to race yet in that event.

“I need more super-G training days in order to feel comfortable to race,” she said, adding she is planning one start in the discipline — in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Dec. 14.

“If it’s in a really good spot, then we can think about continuing, and if it’s not, then we can put that off to after the Olympics,” Shiffrin said at a media event hosted by her equipment supplier Atomic.

The technical events of slalom and GS have always been Shiffrin’s strongest disciplines, though she got nine of her record 101 career World Cup wins in speed events – five in super-G, four in downhill.

The American hasn’t competed in the speed disciplines since hurting her knee in a downhill crash on the Olympic course in Cortina d’Ampezzo in January 2024. Her last super-G start was in December 2023, when she skied out and didn’t finish the race in Val d’Isere, France.

Prior to the 2024-25 season, Shiffrin had already decided to skip the downhills for the foreseeable future, but at the same time planned to race in as many super-G events as her schedule would permit.

However, in a giant slalom crash at her home races in Killington, Vermont in November, something punctured Shiffrin’s side and caused severe damage to her oblique muscles.

Shiffrin returned two months later but reduced her schedule for the rest of the season to her core events of slalom and GS, still earning career wins 100 and 101 in the process and taking gold with Breezy Johnson in the team combined event at the world championships in Austria.

The American suffered for months from lingering post-traumatic stress disorder following her giant slalom crash, but said after the season she was finally feeling “like myself again” when racing GS.

During her summer training camps, most recently in Ushuaia, Argentina, Shiffrin and her team put extra emphasis on GS.

“I have been prioritizing GS, like trying to get as much repetition in GS as possible, and I have done quite a lot more volume in GS than in past years,” Shiffrin said.

Even 14 years after making her debut in top-level ski racing and setting the record for most race wins, winning five overall titles, eight slalom season titles and two Olympic gold medals, the American acknowledged being nervous going into the new campaign.

“I still feel jitters, I probably feel more nervous with each season because I know how hard it is to be really successful – and how much I want to be successful,” the American said. "I feel like I have better skiing to explore, so that is where my motivation is right now.”

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing