That Shiffren is something else. She did her first downhill race just a few months ago. Awhile ago she said she wanted to expand her horizons, something like “If it involves skiing and going down a hill, I don’t see why I couldn’t be good at it.”
The amount of training she does is crazy. And her attitude. She said that EVERY turn she does, even if it is going up to the ski lift she treats as a racing turn.
One day they were supposed to do ski practice, but there was too much snow on the course. So everyone else on the US Ski Team went out to play on the slopes in the powder and have some fun.
“I suppose they got some excerzise - but it isn’t really the same muscles or style. I stayed inside and got an extra day of my training regime in.”
The article described a training day - unbelievable! Talked about how at the end of her third circuit she was crawling to get to the end. Then a two-minute break and some water, and she did it again. Two more times.
She had a pre-interview for the Olympics that was very interesting. Talked about how she was mentally fatigued after doing so many races - including doing downhill races for the first time. She didn’t finish a couple of races - missed some gates at the very end.
She said something like “That was all mental - I just couldn’t hold my concentration all through the course. I had been traveling and doing races one after the other for two months, most of them on consecutive days. I knew I needed to take a break after I didn’t finish those last two days. I took three days off and only did some light training. So I’m ready to go!”
Three days!
Very interesting! I had never heard of her before these Olympics. She’s performed admirably.
Even Jean Claude Killy enjoyed skiing without gates. Might be because the gates were bamboo, but he enjoyed just skiing too.