Patrick Lang’s Column

6th December 2019

ON THE ROAD AGAIN… RECORDS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN….

For many years until her decision to retire from the sport, US speed star has been amassing victories and chasing records to establish herself as the “GOAT” – the Greatest of All Time! The 2010 downhill Olympic Champion certainly succeeded as the most successful female alpine racer beating Annemarie Moser- Proell’s mark of 62 wins a few years ago at Cortina d’Ampezzo. She would certainly have beaten record of 86 with a little more luck in her career – and less painful injuries. She left the scene last February in Are with another FIS medal around her neck and can surely be proud of her 82 triumphs celebrated all over the ski world since December 2004.

How long will it take to to approach or improve her records? Last weekend, the only 24-year-old American from Vail Valley enjoyed also her 62nd World Cup win at Killington, , her 42st in slalom, two more than Sweden’s Skiing Legend Stenmark! Even though the triple overall World Cup champion likes to say she is not particularly motivated by records, she decided to name her fourth reindeer offered by the Levi Organizers “Ingemar” a few hours after her first season win in Finland. Her explanation is interesting!

“Nice to meet you, Ingemar! I was thinking about this name yesterday after the race when someone mentioned the record, but there were a couple things to sort through before announcing it. First was to ask for Ingemar’s permission of course! But I also wanted to take a quiet moment to think about the day and what this race meant to me.”

“The truth is, it did not feel like a record-breaking day for me. It felt like a day. A race day. A wonderful slalom race day, albeit a little foggy. And now I have this record to my name–a milestone that I never in my wildest dreams thought I would achieve when I was younger–but all I could think was, Ingemar was better. I don’t see it as “breaking his record”, I am just continuing it. So even though the idea of naming my reindeer after Ingemar was born from the talk of “breaking” the record, in the end that is not why I chose to do it. It is simply a tribute to one of absolute greatest ski racers to ever live.”

I must say to be impressed by Mikaela's level of performances since I met her for the first time back in 2012 after her second podium finish at Levi! Her passion for the sport and her hard-work ethic are also to be admired as it surely has also been the case for some of the previous "all-time-greats" as Moser-Proell, Switzerland's - also a three-time overall World Cup champion - or Vonn who had to overcome so many grueling moments in the final part of her impressive career.

Yet there is another interesting element that contributes in my mind to make Mikaela a different kind of champions and a true role model for young racers - her outmost respect for her rivals and famous skiing legends. Yet this doesn’t prevent the slalom winner at back in 2016 to work out intensively during the off-season to perfectly prepare her following winter campaign with the goal to keep on improving her level or performance – trying to remain as relaxed as possible throughout the days.

A few years ago, she told me at Lake Louise that she definitely aims to excel in all alpine specialties and to become an established allrounder. In the meantime Mikaela celebrated victories in all of them – including in parallel slalom – and I am sure she’ll try to achieve another career highlight in the coming months and years and enjoy victories in all of them during the same season. Janica Kostelic, whom Shiffrin greatly admired in her teen years, achieved that impressive performance comparable to the ‘Grand Slam’ in Tennis or Golf. So far, Mikaela has reached the podium in all four competitions she entered in past weeks- let’s see if she can keep up with that pace the next weekend in Lake Louise, Canada, where she already could dominate the rest of the field in past winters in both downhill and Super-G races!