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With the Alpine snowboarding World Cup returning to North America for the primary time in two years, Mikaela Shiffrin cannot wait to race in entrance of a house crowd once more.
This weekend’s two races in Killington, Vermont, are the one girls’s World Cup occasions on American snow this season and for Shiffrin there may be each a private unbeaten streak and an all-time file on the road. She has gained all 4 earlier World Cup slalom races in Killington and the occasion had turn into a little bit of annual signpost for Shiffrin earlier than they have been canceled final 12 months due to the pandemic.
“I don’t know tips on how to quantify it, nevertheless it doesn’t really feel just like the season has formally began with out Killington,” Shiffrin mentioned. “To have that first race or the beginning-of-the-season races within the U.S., that’s been an enormous hallmark of each season that I’ve ever had.”
This season formally started in Sölden, Austria, in October, and Shiffrin already shares the lead within the general World Cup standings with Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, with each on 260 factors after the primary 4 races.
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In Killington there’s a large slalom scheduled for Saturday and a slalom on Sunday, the place Shiffrin can match one more file. The 2-time Olympic champion has gained 45 World Cup slaloms, leaving her one in need of the file for many wins in a single self-discipline, set by Swedish nice Ingemar Stenmark with 46 large slalom victories within the Seventies and ’80s.
Whereas the 26-year-old Shiffrin hails from Vail, Colorado, she will virtually think about Killington a hometown race as she honed her expertise close by on the Burke Mountain Academy as a young person.
“It’s actually thrilling, in all probability as a result of I spent a lot time within the East Coast and I understand how passionate persons are in regards to the sport there,” Shiffrin mentioned. “We positively missed it final 12 months and it’s very thrilling to be wanting ahead to it this 12 months once more.”
Shiffrin gained the season-opening large slalom World Cup in Sölden however completed second to Vlhova — her greatest rival — in each the slalom races in Levi, Finland final week. Each Shiffrin and Vlhova skipped a parallel occasion in Austria.
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Shiffrin’s success has come regardless of an ongoing wrestle with again ache that has interfered along with her coaching schedule. And that would have an effect on her this weekend too.
“She’s had enormous success within the slalom, and knock on wooden I feel she’s gained it each time they’ve put it on (in Killington). However she positively has one thing to show with that GS hill,” mentioned Shiffrin’s coach, Mike Day. “With a again damage shortly after Sölden, we haven’t been in a position to produce any GS quantity in any respect. … So we’ll be, I assume, operating on fumes, so to say, so far as GS goes. However we’ll see what she’s in a position to put collectively.”
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