By Shadia Nasralla
YANQING, China (Reuters) – Mikaela Shiffrin, who has yet to come close to fulfilling the medal hopes team U.S. had placed on her at the Winter Olympics, said she sees her performance coming 18th in the downhill as useful training for the combined race on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Shiffrin, three-time overall World Cup champion, failed to finish the slalom and giant slalom races and finished ninth in the super-G. On Tuesday, Shiffrin was 2.49 seconds behind Corinne Suter of Switzerland, who beat Italy’s Sofia Goggia to the gold medal.
“I feel I have a lot to learn in downhill and I’m trying to take a crash course just in these last few days… for the combined race,” Shiffrin said on Tuesday, adding she had watched hours of video to analyse the course.
Shiffrin who had virtually no downhill races in the past two years, said she still found herself fighting the downhill track, which, together with a slalom race, makes up the combined competition.
“I’m so glad that I had the opportunity to race it today and get another run under my belt for the coming days… The events could not be more opposite, it’s like doing two different sports in one single day.”
“Every day that I get on this track and I’m able to take a run and just do a solid run top to bottom, it gives me the chance to be a little bit more calm in my mind. I tend to think way too much and that makes it hard to ski freely.”
Shiffrin is planning to also race the team event, making her one of the very few skiers to compete in every single Olympic discipline in Alpine skiing.
“The combined is probably going to be the most tiring day we’ve had,” she said. “Energy-wise I feel ok.”
(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla)
