“Finally just enjoyed skiing for a day” – Mikaela Shiffrin makes podium in first race at Super-G since Olympics


“Finally just enjoyed skiing for a day” – Mikaela Shiffrin makes podium in first race at Super-G since Olympics

Mikaela Shiffrin

American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin, who had a stressful and surprising outing at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, is happy just to enjoy her skiing again. Shiffrin has taken the lead in the World Cup overall standings after finishing second in a tricky super-G at Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

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This will surely act as a massive morale booster for the 26-year-old after poor results at Beijing 2022, taking home zero medals from six events.

“After the last couple of weeks, I really appreciate this,” said Shiffrin, who was congratulated course-side by the Swiss tennis great Roger Federer, who too has a home close to the Lenzerheide course.

“This is really great today, that’s a positive thing of course, but I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” Shiffrin cautioned. “I finally just enjoyed skiing for a day.”

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“Felt really, really heavy on my mind and on my heart”

Mikaela Shiffrin
Mikaela Shiffrin

The Colorado native Shiffrin also shed light on what was going on in her mind at the time of the Games. 

“I think I’ve actually been pretty awful to be around with my team,” she added. “The last few weeks, not because of the Olympics but of course, that’s a big part of it, it’s just been heavy. Everything felt really, really heavy on my mind and on my heart.”

Mikaela reckoned that the racers only knew from watching television near the start hut that Federer was at the bottom of the hill waiting for them.

“Everybody was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we have to ski really fast!'” she said. “It’s pretty surreal to see that he’s here watching a ski race and quite exciting for us.”

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Lara Gut-Behrami, the Olympic champion in super-G, was third, 0.88 back of French skier Romane Miradoli, who grabbed the top spot.

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