As Mikaela Shiffrin begins her World Cup season, the Olympics are not her primary priority

The most effective method to prepare for the Olympics is to do nothing.

For many athletes, the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina coincide with the midst of their competitive seasons. Focusing entirely on the Games jeopardizes the remainder of the season. Carry on with your season as usual, and there’s a high chance you’ll be in great condition for the Olympics.

At least that’s how skier Mikaela Shiffrin sees it.

“There isn’t much you can do in our sport to prepare for a major tournament like the Olympics or the World Championship. “It’s one of those events that falls right in the middle of our season, just weeks, if not days, after our last World Cup competition,” Shiffrin said earlier this week.

“The idea that most of us tend to have is, the more consistently you perform through the World Cup season, the more you will have momentum, some level of competence — confidence and competence — to bring into the Games.”

That is not to say Shiffrin does not believe the Olympics are essential. She has experienced some of her highest highs (two gold medals) and lowest lows (Beijing, enough said) at the Games, and she understands how important they are to her and the rest of the world.

However, making the Olympics the end-all and be-all of the year and focusing just on those few races almost guarantees disappointment.

“The best you can do is to, at least for me, prioritize the races that I think I’ll be the most comfortable with,” she added.

That starts with Saturday’s big slalom race in Soelden, Austria.

What races will Shiffrin enter?
Shiffrin intended to run slalom, giant slalom, super-G, and, if she could get enough training time, downhill. However, a November crash in Killington, Vermont, left her with a major puncture wound in her belly, altering not just her intentions for the rest of that season, but also this one.

Though she returned to the World Cup circuit and won her 100th and 101st races, PTSD from the collision hampered her GS training and riding. She devoted a significant portion of her offseason on regaining her GS rhythm, and while she believes she is in fantastic shape, it took time away from training super-G and downhill.

So downhill is out for the season. Although Super-G remains a possibility, Shiffrin has accepted that she will most likely not race it at Milan Cortina.

“(The World Cup race) at St. Moritz will be the opportunity for me to see where I stand, if it’s even possible to qualify for the Olympics in super-G,” says Shiffrin. “And if it isn’t, I’ll stick with GS and slalom to narrow my emphasis.

“So there’s a lot of uncertainty there. But I enjoy super-G, so I don’t want to give it up totally,” she explained. “But it also means that I’ve got to get quite a bit more super-G training in the next weeks, which is hard to balance.”

Strong US team.
Recognizing that downhill and, most likely, super-G are out of the question this year gave Shiffrin some “bittersweetness.” But that was balanced by enthusiasm and pride for the rest of the United States women’s team, which is the strongest it has been in years.

Last season, five US women reached the World Cup podium, the most since 2012-13. Aside from Shiffrin, Lauren Macuga won the super-G at St. Anton and took silver in the downhill. Breezy Johnson won bronze in the downhill. Paula Moltzan earned bronze medals in slalom and GS.

Johnson also won the downhill at the world championships, while Macuga (super-G) and Moltzan (GS) earned bronze medals.

“The United States team is stacked,” Shiffrin explained. “I believe if I raced downhill, I would not even qualify. And that is just the practical aspect of it. So saying that is somewhat liberating. I have so many colleagues who can handle this.”

In addition, there is the combined team to look forward to in these Games.

The team combined succeeds the super combined. The premise remains the same: one run of downhill and one of slalom, but the runs are now split between two skiers. Shiffrin and Johnson won gold together in the world championships’ debut event.

They had a great time doing it, too, and Shiffrin is excited about the prospect to race in the team combined again, this time at the Olympics.

“It’s a really incredible dream about team combined,” said Shiffrin, who took silver in the super combined at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018. “So I hope to race in three races. I believe that’s quite safe to state.”

All of this is in the future, however. Shiffrin’s concentration is currently focused exclusively on the races in front of her. The greatest way to prepare for the Olympics is to excel on the World Cup circuit.

Follow USA TODAY Sports journalist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour.