How many Olympic events does Mikaela Shiffrin enter?

Mikaela Shiffrin gained her fewest World Cups in a season (three) in 2020-21 than she did because the 2012-13 season (4). That’s good for some shock worth and nothing extra.

This 12 months was cray-cray, as the youngsters say, or may need mentioned, so we’re going to sum up the 12 months, which technically began in February 2020.

Mikaela’s father dies and he or she returns house from competitors. COVID-19 comes shutting down Mikaela from returning to tour through the finish of the 2020 season. Mikaela doesn’t have a standard offseason.

As such she limits herself to tech occasions, which is smart on the time. Has she misplaced “the sting,” or no matter makes her Mikaela? No. Having already gained an enormous slalom in Courcheval, France, in her fourth begin, she throws down on the Flachau, Austria, evening slalom. The world ought to be so fortunate she misplaced her edge.

With world champs in Cortina, Italy, approaching, Mikaela does some super-G coaching. (This might properly be “The Second” of the season.) It goes properly. She enters her first velocity race since her father dies and finishes third on the worlds super-G, adopted by a mixed gold. She’s nonetheless good at velocity apparently. Mikaela wins silver in GS in Cortina (wonderful) and bronze in slalom (her streak at worlds was going to finish some 12 months, however she felt she might have skied significantly better).

Shiffrin finishes the season fourth total (Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova) and second in each the GS (Italy’s Marta Bassino) and in slalom (Austria’s Katharina Liensberger). Extra importantly, despite the fact that there are not any globes as souvenirs of this 12 months, Shiffrin has reminded everybody she’s nonetheless the woman to beat.

Begin the clock

And the second the 2020-21 season ended on Sunday, the countdown to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing started.

Remembering, after all, that Shiffrin is actually a strolling company heading into an Olympic 12 months, when the remainder of America pays consideration to Alpine snowboarding, that is large monetary season for her. We attempt to preserve the cash out of our protection, however Shiffrin, already sponsored by Land Rover, Bose and Barilla, to call a number of, is an athlete with a restricted window for major-income incomes and a wonderful, boring fame, a useful commodity to firms in a time of hyper-partisanship.

Her offseason goes to be spent taping commercials.

She’s additionally going to have to determine a sport plan for the Olympics, and that is what we now have to look at. Within the ramp as much as 2018 in PyeongChang, South Korea, Shiffrin began so as to add velocity and took on an excessive amount of.

Was she killing it with doing downhill and super-G along with the tech? Sure. However she additionally DNF’d in consecutive races in Cortina (super-G, Jan 21, 2018) and Kronplatz, Italy, (GS, Jan. 23, 2018). After ending seventh, an terrible outcome, in a GS in Lenzerheide, Swtizerland, the final weekend of tech earlier than the Olympics, Shiffrin DNF’s in a slalom.

Flashback for a second: In Shiffrin’s first full 12 months on tour, 2012-13, Croatia’s Tina Maze units the all time file for factors in a World Cup season with 2,414. Throughout that season, Maze tells Shffrin, based on the New York Occasions, that coming into each race and the following grind is killing her love for the game.

After her third DNF in 4 begins — considered one of Shiffrin’s logos is that she doesn’t DNF; she has one DNF in a mixed since that Lenzerheide DNF proper earlier than the Olympics on Jan. 28, 2018 — that is when she makes the choice: I’m not happening the Tina Maze path. I’m going to ski what’s comfy and no extra.

After the 2018 Olympics during which climate forces the GS and slalom to be run on back-to-back days, she wins gold in GS, is fourth within the slalom due to the scheduling and in addition takes silver within the mixed, Shiffrin stops attempting to compete in every thing.

It really works brilliantly.

In her 50 World Cup or world championship begins from after the 2018 Olympics from March 9, 2018 (Ofterschwang, Germany, GS, third place)-Jan 26, 2020 (Bansko, Bulgaria, super-G, win, the weekend earlier than her father’s dying), she podiums 39 instances, wins 25 races and her “dangerous” finishes are Tenth-place ends in downhills and super-Gs in Lake Louise, Alberta. (These “dangerous” finishes are A-OK.)

Have we discovered from historical past?

As Shiffrin ramps as much as the 2022 Olympics, she has to recollect this expertise. Based mostly on her velocity performances at worlds, we simply wish to unleash Shiffrin on the world in 2021-22 to see what havoc she will be able to wreak. There can even be company strain for Shiffrin to broaden her schedule on the Olympics — NBC would ideally love her to enter all 5 occasions.

Don’t do it, Mikaela. Preserve to your plan. It really works. Shiffrin will clearly enter the GS and slalom. The proper Olympic plan is her successful these two races. The one American to have gained two golds in a single Olympics is Andrea Mead Lawrence again in 1952. Ted Ligety and Shiffrin have two Olympic golds, however in numerous Olympics. The opposite regular suspects of American snowboarding, Phil Mahre, Bode Miller and Lindsey Vonn have gained just one Olympic gold.

Since tech is at all times on the finish of the second week of the Olympics or worlds, Shiffrin ought to enter the super-G, historically the primary of the 5 disciplines contested, as a result of she clearly has expertise for it and it doesn’t intervene with the bread and butter.

Does she strive the Olympic downhill? Doubt it. She’s most likely spreading herself too skinny. This is not going to be a preferred resolution. Too dangerous.

The mixed is the evil seductress in relation to Olympics and.or future worlds. Even with only one run of tech within the trendy format as a substitute of two, slalom racers are the favourite. As she confirmed final month in Cortina, Shiffrin’s talent set is completely suited to a mixed.

However does it add an excessive amount of? Most likely, however for the explanations we simply acknowledged, she’s gotta give it strive.

So put Mikaela down for 4 races in Beijing. Now, is that this her final Olympics? We choose that up in Thursday’s Vail Every day.