Despite a driving error in the second round, Mikaela Shiffrin saves her lead to the finish and celebrates World Cup gold in giant slalom. She herself is overwhelmed, but also reacts stubbornly. She does not like to talk about the surprising separation from her coach and makes a clear statement.
Mikaela Shiffrin clapped her hands to her face in disbelief, then sank into the soft snow under the blue sky over Meribel, seemingly overwhelmed by her narrow victory. She didn’t seem to have let the excitement surrounding the sudden split from her trainer, Mike Day, faze her. Just two days after the announcement, she drove to World Championship gold in giant slalom, as expected. “Incredible,” she said first – then the ski queen’s voice failed.
Shiffrin was the big favorite to win, but in the end her lead was narrower than expected. After a small driving error in the second round, she was only 0.12 seconds ahead of the new combined world champion and Olympic silver medalist Federica Brignone from Italy. Ragnhild Mowinckel from Norway secured bronze (0.22), second in giant slalom and downhill at the 2018 Olympics. For defending champion Lara Gut-Behrami from Switzerland it was only enough for fourth place, for Olympic champion Sara Hector from Sweden only for 13th place. Emma Aicher was the only German who only finished 31st place.
Shiffrin, said ARD expert Felix Neureuther appreciatively, “made it extremely exciting. Cool race. Hats off to her. With the history, with the trainer. There are no superlatives for this woman”. It seems like this: After silver in the Super-G, victory in the giant slalom was the seventh, the medal the 13th at a World Cup. In the all-time World Cup leaderboard, Shiffrin is now in second place behind German legend Christl Cranz (15 medals/12 wins).
The separation from her coach, however, remained an issue that Shiffrin did not escape. But she didn’t want to talk about it at first, the message came from the US team to the broadcasting ARD: no questions about it – otherwise she’ll leave. You can understand that, said the former racer Tina Weirather, third in the Super-G at the 2018 Olympics and now an expert for Swiss television: “But it also shows that they just didn’t part well.”
Shiffrin apparently wanted to part with her head coach at the end of the season, but unusually she had already informed him in the past few days. After that, Day immediately drew the line and left. But the separation is not unexpected: Shiffrin’s mother, Eileen, who is known as resolute, also has the last word in all sporting matters. Meanwhile, Shiffrin’s friend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde tried to explain the breakup. “Mike is a very good coach and it worked really well with Mikaela,” said the Norwegian, “but every now and then you have to change something. Maybe just to get new motivation.”
