They are becoming more and more. The top athletes who talk about the internal and external press, mental anxiety or mental obstacles on the road to success.
Superstar Mikaela Shiffrin has won almost everything that can be won. Still, there are days when it feels like the whole world expects something from her.
It tells it American alpinidol during a digital press conference ahead of the upcoming Olympic year.
– In a way, I think that the weight of carrying all this has decreased. I have learned to expect highs and lows when it comes to pressure, nervousness or tension.
– But with that said, feeling pressure is extremely uncomfortable. Take, for example, the Tokyo Olympics this summer. When Caeleb Dressel (USA, five golds in swimming) left the Olympics, he said that there had been some fantastic moments but that the majority of the days had been extremely difficult. And he was just one of all the gold medalists in Tokyo.
– And that is almost a metaphor for my whole career – some competition days everything feels good and just like a training day, other days I wake up and put my left boot on my right foot. Then it’s more of a struggle.
Some competition days everything feels good, other days I wake up and put my left boot on my right foot.
The prodigy from Colorado, who won his first World Cup gold as a 17-year-old, has reached the age of 26.
This weekend’s slalom premiere in Levi, Finland, she still comes as by far the biggest name in the Alpine World Cup, but the last few years have been tough. In February 2020, the star’s father died unexpectedly. Mikaela Shiffrin – then a three-time overall winner in the World Cup – took a break from competing, returned last winter, but was then not the superior skier that TV viewers got used to.
In the parade branch slalom, where only Frida Hansdotter had broken the American gold line in an Olympics or WC since 2013 (the Swede won the Olympics 2018), it was “only” bronze in the WC in Cortina in February. And even in the World Cup, Shiffrin missed the slalom title. Admittedly, Shiffrin was never worse than five in eight slalom competitions and she took two victories, but Katharina Liensberger (Austria) and Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) offered tough resistance.
– Mikaela Shiffrin won two slalom competitions last season but missed the World Cup title and the World Cup gold.
Photo: Pontus Lundahl / TT
Ahead of this year’s Olympic season she has tried to put in as much slalom training as possible, she says. She certainly wants to ride all disciplines both in the World Cup and the Olympics. But a packed schedule eats away at body and bud, “and as we saw last year, I can not have it that way and still hope to win competitions”.
– So I have tried to have slalom training as a priority.
– Sure, I want to go speed racing, but it’s about gradually choosing what I want to do and how realistic it is.
Since last year she has also regained the feeling for skiing, says Shiffrin.
And it is heard on the voice in a several-minute-long exposition in front of listening journalists somewhere in cyberspace.
– So this year last year it was quite confused about my passion for the sport, my relationship to the sport, why I want to do this, how it is related to family and how much of my motivation comes from an inner glow versus that I do this because I grew up with it.
– Now I would say that it is a good mix of both.
– And during this summer, I have felt a little more spark when it comes to motivation and I have also had a slightly more normal training schedule. Then I felt much more in line with my skier self. People may think I never lost it, but last summer it was hard to even remember why I do this.
– “Last summer, it was hard to even remember why I do this,” says Mikaela Shiffrin about the way back.
Photo: Gabriele Facciotti / AP
The winter season has also launched in style.
In the world cup premiere in Sölden came the 70th victory of his career, after a hundredth fight with Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami in the giant slalom.
And the fact that Shiffrin – despite missing slalom gold in February – still won four World Cup medals in four starts (gold in combination, silver in giant slalom, bronze in super-G and slalom) means that expectations both from the outside and inside are high.
In just Levi, where this weekend’s slalom premiere contains double World Cup competitions, she has been at the top of the podium four times. Following the competitions in Finland, a speed premiere is expected next week in Lake Louise, Canada.
A big dream is to get back to a position where I challenge for the overall title in the World Cup.
– A big dream is to get back to a position where I challenge for the overall title in the World Cup, says Shiffrin.
– There will never be a guarantee that I can win it again. But I try to do the job to make it possible, at least I should be able to ride all disciplines and be a candidate for the podium in all disciplines.
And the pressure on the star before the Olympics?
A lot is about a fight against your own demons.
– I have learned over the years that there is a lot of psychology involved when talking about expectations. In the end, it’s hard to not only have your own expectations but also to feel expectations from a whole world and everyone around one. Literally from everyone who’s there, it could be from your coach or your family – people you would never really see as putting pressure on individuals – but that’s how pressure works.
– You care about what others think and you really care about what people closest to you think. But as long as you know it’s going to happen, it’s okay. Hopefully I take it as it comes and do not feel that I need to hide from those feelings.
– There were four World Cup medals for Mikaela Shiffrin in Italian Cortina last winter: One gold, one silver, two bronze.
Photo: Sergio Bisi/TT