PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — For three days, Mikaela Shiffrin waited as Siberian wind howled through the Taebaek Mountains.
Temporary buildings erected for the Winter Olympics buckled. The wind chill plunged below zero. Debris whipped through streets. And in a narrow valley named after a dragon, navigating the 1,250-meter Rainbow 1 course at the Yongpyong Alpine Center became a perilous exercise.
The wind forced the postponement of Shiffrin’s first race at the 2018 Games once, then twice. The world’s top-ranked Alpine skier jokingly wondered if she’d ever get the chance to compete.
Finally, the wind quieted Thursday. Temperatures climbed into the mid-20s. The sky cleared. As supporters blew horns and clanged cowbells under blinding sunshine, Shiffrin embarked on her much-anticipated quest to make history.
The 22-year-old from Vail, Colo., blitzed through her second run in the giant slalom to win the gold medal by almost half a second.
After crossing the finish line, Shiffrin leaned toward the snow, sucked in air then smiled wide as the sparse crowd broke into excited shouts.
Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel finished second and Italy’s Federica Brignone placed third.
But Shiffrin’s aspirations extend far beyond a lone medal.
She struggled in previous weeks, but she is positioned to win as many as five medals at the Games. Shiffrin blamed the uncharacteristic difficulties, which included two seventh-place finishes, on too many races, too close together. She arrived in South Korea almost two weeks ago to rest and recover and, after the short break, feels back to her usual grinning, dominant, unflappable self.
That should frighten the other Alpine competitors.
Shiffrin is the heavy favorite to defend her gold medal in the slalom, her best event, Friday. She’s a medal contender in the combined. And, if she has the energy, she could compete in the downhill and super-G.
If the plan works, Shiffrin, coached by her mother, Eileen, would be the first U.S. woman to win three Alpine medals in a single Olympics.
Sound daunting? Shiffrin is accustomed to breaking ground. She has dominated the World Cup circuit this season, amassing almost twice as many overall points as second-place Wendy Holdener of Switzerland. That included winning five consecutive races — the longest streak in 20 years — in December and January. Shiffrin has already collected 41 World Cup victories. (Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark’s 86 career wins are the most by either gender.)
The packed schedule in Pyeongchang — even more challenging after wind reshuffled the program — may transform Shiffrin into the U.S. face of these Games.
Even though Shiffrin hadn’t won a giant slalom since Jan. 6 in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, she delivered the second-fastest time in her first run through the course Thursday. She looked like the same old Shiffrin.
“I also feel like I can go a little bit harder,” she said between races. “There’s nothing to hold back.”
Shiffrin was right.
——
©2018 Los Angeles Times
Visit the Los Angeles Times at www.latimes.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
—————
Topics: t000040194,t000003183,t000003669,t000418080,t000003187,t000135323
