The head coach of Mikaela Shiffrin makes her own history

There are other members of her squad that are creating history besides Mikaela Shiffrin.

For Saturday’s first run in Are, Sweden, Shiffrin’s personal head coach Karin Harjo will build a giant slalom course, making her the first female to do so on the World Cup circuit. In 2016, Harjo became the first female to set a slalom course for the World Cup.

“We should celebrate and honour milestones like this. However, Harjo told USA TODAY Sports, “Progress is when it’s just another day and we’re all doing our jobs, regardless of gender.”

In ski racing, the layout of a course is crucial because it defines its profile. For instance, it dictates whether a course is meandering or straight, or the location and spacing of the gates. Your coach will create the route depending on your preferences and strengths, which may be a big advantage in a sport where outcomes are sometimes determined by tenths or hundredths of a second.

For instance, you can increase the distance between gates if someone is a superior glider. Set a track with fast, tight twists if you’re technically accurate.

“You’re constantly considering the kinds of things that your athlete enjoys seeing. That may draw attention to Mikaela’s advantages over others, Harjo stated. “I can incorporate her preferred traits into the course set because we train and collaborate daily.”

Course-setting tasks are distributed among the several national teams since it does provide an edge. Countries will have the option to offer up to three courses in each discipline, depending on their performance during the previous season.

Karin Harjo (right), Mikaela Shiffrin’s personal head coach, will become the first woman to set a giant slalom course on the World Cup circuit, doing so for Saturday’s first run in Are, Sweden.

This season, the US won two GS matches and three slalom sets. The two months that Shiffrin missed following a major fall on a GS in Killington, Vermont, coincided with Harjo’s original plan to set a slalom course.

However, that proved to be fortuitous, since Harjo’s course would now take place on International Women’s Day.

According to Harjo, “awareness is change.” “It is extraordinary in and of itself to have such a wonderful celebration during the year. This awareness may serve as an inspiration and a catalyst for opportunities for those interested in coaching if it coincides with other occasions such as these. or go after anything.

At the highest level, coaches and support personnel are mostly males, as is the case in many sports. Harjo was the sole female coach in the tech disciplines of GS and slalom on the World Cup circuit when she designed her first course nine years ago.

“I don’t know why the sport has been so male-dominated,” Harjo stated. It’s most likely cultural in part. However, the nomadic lifestyle of ski racing, where athletes, coaches, and staff must relocate every week throughout the season and spend the most of the year travelling, might make it more difficult for women who wish to start a family.

Harjo remarked, “I wouldn’t call it a barrier.” “But it’s something that isn’t conducive at the moment.”

Not long ago, it was the same in football. Emma Hayes, who is a single mother of 6-year-old Harry, currently holds the most prominent position in the world as coach of the U.S. women’s national team.

“When I look at that, I think it’s really cool,” Harjo remarked.

However, those firsts must occur so that other women have someone to aspire to.

When Harjo was an assistant on the U.S. team, he collaborated with Shiffrin. Before the previous season, Shiffrin hired Harjo as her head coach, bringing her out of Canada, where she was just the second woman to lead a national team. She did this not only to highlight Harjo’s abilities but also to raise awareness of women in sports.

There will also be attention while you’re alongside Shiffrin, who has more World Cup victories than any other skier, male or female, with 100.

There is this question that isn’t always asked. People will ask, ‘Can she do it?’ but it’s not a terrible thing. Gender isn’t the only factor. “Yeah, we can do it,” Harjo responded, responding to the inquiry.

After then, it becomes the standard. Then, whether it’s for a discipline or a nation, additional women are stepping forward to head teams. And that shift becomes commonplace.

Harjo is already witnessing it. Since she established slalom courses in 2016, two other women have done the same. On the World Cup circuit, there are more female coaches.

Fans across the world will hear Harjo’s name on Saturday when announcers point out that Shiffrin’s coach set the opening run of the GS course.

Some will understand the significance, but most won’t. And perhaps, just possibly, a young woman or girl will hear it and think, “I can do that someday.”

It merely brings about that shift. That’s the main point,” Harjo stated. “And hopefully encourages someone to want to follow suit.”

Lindsey Vonn was ‘disappointed’ with way Mikaela Shiffrin handled the choice to race with another teammate

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) – They are the two greatest skiers in United States history. Specifically, in women’s skiing in general.

It’s hardly surprising that having Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin on the same team might lead to conflict.

It happened years ago, when Vonn was nearing the end of her career and Shiffrin was just starting out. And now it’s happening again, with Vonn returning to racing at the age of 40, nearly six years after retiring.

But who thought that the all-new team-based event would bring the tension to the surface?

Vonn expressed disappointment with Shiffrin’s choice to participate in the combined event at the skiing world championships alongside downhill world champion Breezy Johnson, rather than forming a “dream team.”

Vonn had hoped to race with Shiffrin on an American squad that would have included the two most successful skiers in World Cup history. Never mind that neither skier is officially permitted to choose who they partner with; the U.S. team’s coaching staff makes that decision based on “season-best results” in both downhill and slalom.

Shiffrin withdrew from the team combined race due to a lack of giant slalom training after a November collision in Killington, Vermont.

Shiffrin made a modification to her plans Monday. She stated that she was struggling to overcome her worries following her November fall, so she chose to withdraw from defending her giant slalom championship and run the combined instead, teaming with Johnson. Shiffrin will compete in the slalom, while Johnson will race the downhill.

Slalom has lower speeds than giant slalom, making it a less risky sport.

“I’m happy for Breezy and Mikaela to work together, and I think they’ll make an excellent combination. However, I am upset in how it was handled,” Vonn told The Associated Press.

Vonn said she contacted Shiffrin, who agreed it would be amazing to compete together. However, Vonn was then informed that Shiffrin will not be competing in the combined. Vonn just found out about Shiffrin’s ultimate choice to race it via Instagram.

“Despite the lack of communication I am a team player and am looking forward to be partnered with AJ Hurt, who is an amazing young skier,” he said.

Shiffrin’s spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

A new event has one racer participating in downhill and another in slalom.

The combined event consists of one racer participating in a downhill run and another in a slalom run, with the two times put together to determine the final results. Each nation may enter up to four partnerships.

Johnson won the world downhill title, and Shiffrin won two World Cups this season, therefore they were nominated to Team 1.

The No. 2 team consists of super-G bronze medallist Lauren Macuga and Paula Moltzan. Vonn and Hurt are ranked third, followed by Jacqueline Wiles and Katie Hensien in fourth place.

Shiffrin and Vonn have the most World Cup victories among female racers, with 99 and 82, respectively. Vonn has the most World Cup downhill victories (43), while Shiffrin has the most slalom victories (62), both among men and women.

“I think it would be probably one of the coolest things in ski racing to have 181 World Cup victories on one team,” Vonn stated only a week prior.

While Hurt, 24, has never won a World Cup event, she has finished third twice, once in slalom and once in giant slalom last season.

Vonn reacts with astonishment on social media, then deletes a post.

Before delivering her explanatory comment, Vonn looked angry that Shiffrin was not racing beside her.

“Why am I not surprised?” Vonn posted a shrug emoji on X after witnessing Shiffrin’s Instagram news.

Vonn erased the previous statement and replaced it with a new post on X, stating, “I am a team player and always support my team no matter what.” I am not shocked by the judgements taken, but it is evident that they are not mine. “I’ve always been supportive and respectful, and that won’t change,” Vonn added, ending with a Go USA flag emoji.

Mikaela Shiffrin reflects on her 100th World Cup victory in an in-depth interview

Mikaela Shiffrin questioned if she’d be able to compete again this season following a massive slalom collision on November 30, let alone return to the top of a World Cup podium so soon after winning her record-extending 100th career race last Sunday.

Shiffrin discussed the victory in an in-depth interview for a Stifel Snow Show episode that aired Saturday (available on the NBC Sports YouTube channel). The extended interview is at the top of this page.

“There’s so much more meaning to this one than a number or a record,” she told me. “I wouldn’t call it a relief. It’s almost surprising given what’s transpired in the previous several months. I honestly did not expect 100 to happen this season, so I am grateful.”

Shiffrin was remarkably injury-free for the first 12 years of her World Cup participation.

However, in 2024, she suffered two major crashes, including spraining her left leg ligaments in a downhill tumble in January. She missed 11 races last winter.

Then, following the November 30 collision, she was out of competition for two months. She had a penetrating wound that tore oblique muscles and almost punctured organs.

“It has been feeling very similar, to be honest, to this kind of mental fog that I had the year after my dad passed (in 2020),” she told me. “So communicating that, talking with my psychologist, talking with teammates, letting anybody and everybody kind of give me advice, and the main thing that everyone said is the only way to move through this is to get the exposure and to keep doing it (ski racing).”

Shiffrin’s upcoming events are a World Cup giant slalom and slalom in Åre, Sweden, next weekend.

She will turn 30 on March 13 before competing in the World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, from March 22 to 27.