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Shiffrin turns page on busy offseason, begins pursuit of a 6th overall World Cup title

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FILE - United States' Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women's World Cup slalom race, in Soldeu, Andorra, Saturday, March 18, 2023. Shiffrin's busy offseason has included concerts, building dedications and picking up awards. Now it's time to get back to work for the all-time winningest World Cup ski racer. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati, File)

Keeping up with Mikaela Shiffrinā€™s offseason endeavors may be just as challenging as catching up to her in a ski race.

Sheā€™s constantly full speed ahead.

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The all-time winningest World Cup ski racer attended a Taylor Swift concert, visited a camp where a lodge was named after her, picked up an award at the ESPYs, stopped by to see her boyfriend/fellow ski racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde in Norway and wrote an article for Time on singer Noah Kahan.

On the training front, Shiffrin immersed herself in trail running, adapted to a coaching change and adopted a new attitude ā€” ā€œrelaxed and flowy,ā€ she called it ā€” into her racing. The five-time World Cup overall winner has come to realize it's OK to build throughout a season and that she doesnā€™t need to be at her elite best when the season kicks off Saturday with a giant slalom race in Soelden, Austria.

ā€œIā€™m trying to take a little bit more of an approach of giving myself time to build into my best form,ā€ the 28-year-old Shiffrin said Thursday in a Zoom call. ā€œIf I feel amazing on Saturday, Iā€™ll take it. Iā€™m not going to complain about that."

One of the questions hovering around Shiffrin was motivation. More specifically, how does she find another source of inspiration after breaking Ingemar Stenmark's longtime World Cup wins record last season. Shiffrinā€™s current total stands at 88 and counting (Stenmark had 86).

Not even close to an issue, Shiffrin maintained. Her motivation will be as strong as ever in pursuing more World Cup overall titles. The womenā€™s record is six by Annemarie Moser-Proell of Austria.

ā€œSo that motivation doesnā€™t change because it just kind of resets every year,ā€ said Shiffrin, who's from Colorado. ā€œThatā€™s where my headā€™s at.ā€

To take her training to another level, Shiffrin incorporated more trail running. It helped her report for training camp in arguably the best shape of her life. But then food poisoning hit her while training in Chile. And then when she got back home she caught a bug she couldn't shake. It zapped her strength.

ā€œI feel like I'm in a good place now,ā€ Shiffrin said.

Sheā€™s working with a new coach, too, in Karin Harjo, who replaces her longtime coach Mike Day. Shiffrin's mom, Eileen, still works with her as well.

ā€œKarinā€™s transitioning really quite seamlessly into the team,ā€ Shiffrin said. ā€œIā€™m really excited to move forward with Karin leading the charge.ā€

Shiffrin made sure to praise Day, too: "I owe so much of the career that Iā€™ve had to him and the work that heā€™s done.ā€

The plan is for Shiffrin to try to add more speed races ā€” super-Gs in particular ā€” this season. But that's all schedule and health willing, of course.

ā€œThereā€™s not really a lot more racing that I can physically do,ā€ Shiffrin said. ā€œBut thereā€™s a little bit more.ā€

There's also not a lot more she could've crammed into her offseason. She did a little bit of everything.

Shiffrin and her U.S. ski team friends caught a Swift show together. Their bonding time included, ā€œjumping up and down for 3 1/2 hours, shouting ā€˜Love Storyā€™ and all of that,ā€ Shiffrin said with a laugh.

Shiffrin also spent quite a bit of time with Kilde, too, even scripting a dance together to ABBA's ā€œGimme! Gimme! Gimme!ā€ while standing on the slopes in ski racing attire. Shiffrin also picked up the best female athlete award at the ESPY awards. That's not all ā€” she had a lodge named after her at Camp Arrow Wood in Massachusetts. She said her lodge is right next to the one named for basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan.

ā€œThe offseason was really good,ā€ Shiffrin said. ā€œMostly a lot of travel and some really, really fun events.ā€

Now, itā€™s back to work. Her focus in Saturday's GS is more about squeezing in some valuable time on a race course than where she might finish.

ā€œThis first race, itā€™s basically just going to be an opportunity to get the best training that we have access to because itā€™s the only hill thatā€™s actually properly prepared for ski racing right now,ā€ Shiffrin said.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing


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