(Reuters) – Mikaela Shiffrin has learned to embrace the buzz around her run through the record books, she said on Wednesday, ahead of an Alpine ski World Cup season when fans hope to see her notch up her 100th race win.
Twice Olympic champion Shiffrin, owner of a record 97 World Cup wins, kicks off her season this weekend in Soelden, Austria, with expectations sky-high that she could become the first Alpine racer to hit the century mark.
While the 29-year-old American previously shied away from conversations around her overstuffed trophy case, she told reporters she had found a new perspective on the topic, believing it could bring energy into the sport.
“I’ve talked to you all about this and like ‘ah the numbers again, the records, I don’t want to talk about the records I don’t think about the records’,” she said.
“Even though that may be true, bringing energy to the sport is never a bad thing, whether you want to talk about records or statistics or really anything and I’m feeling right now energised by people bringing up 100.
“I think it’s incredible that people are still following along this journey.”
Shiffrin said earlier this month that she would not compete in the downhill when the World Cup season began, citing the demanding training schedule as a deciding factor.
Shiffrin missed several weeks after injuring her knee in a high-speed crash in January while competing in the World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo and will focus on the slalom, giant slalom and super-G instead.
“We kind of had to re-evaluate after Cortina and say, what are we doing here that is potentially setting me up for a little bit of failure,” said Shiffrin.
“And one of those things is really trying to juggle every event. And at some point, we end up sacrificing quality.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; editing by Clare Fallon)
