Shiffrin takes a “monumental step” by finishing fourth as the US ski team shines in the World Cup opening

Mikaela Shiffrin is used to winning World Cup events, but she couldn’t be happier with her fourth-place performance in the first race of the season.

SÖLDEN, Austria (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin is used to winning World Cup races, so she was very happy to finish fourth in the Alpine skiing season opener on Saturday.

The record holder for most career wins (101) has been trying to get back into the sport since her scary incident in a giant slalom last November. No woman has ever won more races in this sport than her 22.

Shiffrin started the race with bib 20. She placed sixth after the first run and moved up two more spaces for her best GS result in 21 months.

Shiffrin commented, “It’s huge,” after the race, which was won by Julia Scheib of Austria. Shiffrin’s teammates Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien came in second and sixth, respectively.

“It’s going to be hard to catch up to the best girls, like Julia and Paula, because they are doing so well. Shiffrin said, “I know I have a lot of work to do.”

“I’m just happy to be here. It was a big step. I’m striving for points, to stay in the top 30, and to ski effectively when it’s dark and lumpy on a lengthy track during a race. “Every single part of today was such a huge step.”

Shiffrin won the Olympic GS gold in 2018 and her last World Cup win in the discipline was in Lienz in December 2023. The next month, she got on the podium again, this time in second place in Jasna. Six days later, she crashed in a downhill race on the course that will be used for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

After that, she didn’t participate in GS again until she came in fifth in the season opening last year. Five weeks later, she got a puncture cut on the right side of her abdomen and serious damage to her oblique abdominal muscles in the collision at her home GS in Killington, Vermont.

She had post-traumatic stress disorder that wouldn’t go away, but she nevertheless competed in three more giant slaloms last season. She came in 25th in the first one but didn’t get any points in the other two. In the end, it caused Shiffrin to lose her place among the best-ranked racers in the discipline, who get the best early start places.

But having to work her way back up the ranks gave her even more motivation.

“It’s exciting to know that I can ski well and move up the ranks, starting with bib 20.” It’s more like when I first started competing in the World Cup. Shiffrin stated, “It was so exciting then, and it’s the same way now.”

Moltzan was impressed that Shiffrin was able to get back to her best in giant slalom.

Moltzan remarked, “She was a little scared of GS last season, so it’s great to see her come back and do so well.” “The mental part of ski racing is a lot bigger than anyone lets on.”

Shiffrin felt like she had won on Saturday after all the uncertainties and worries about her GS skiing last season.

“I’m fourth, and I’m over the moon,” she remarked. “So, it’s a really, really good step, but I still have work to do.” It’s thrilling to start the season, then.

On November 15, Shiffrin will race in Finland, and the week after that, she will race in Austria.