KRANJSKA GORA – Mikaela Shiffrin is the perfect technical skier. Lindsey Vonn was the ultimate speed demon.
Shiffrin is rarely slowed down by physical ailments. Vonn kept throwing himself into the safety nets and breaking bones.
Shiffrin is introverted and sometimes doesn’t even show a punch when she’s winning. Vonn is outgoing and enjoyed celebrating her many wins.
In many ways, the Americans, who now share a record 82 world titles, couldn’t be more different.
In others they are remarkably similar.
Both Shiffrin and Vonn have excelled in every discipline of alpine skiing at various points in their careers, winning races in slalom, giant slalom, Super-G and downhill.
Both spent part of their childhood in Colorado and both were and are by far the best skiers of their generation.
On Sunday, Shiffrin drew level with Vonn by winning a giant slalom for victory #82.
Vonn retired four years ago when her attempt to break Ingemar Stenmark’s combined record – male and female – of 86 wins was interrupted by injuries.
SAME TRAINER
US Ski Team women’s head coach Paul Kristofic coached both Vonn – late in her career – and Shiffrin.
“Both are extremely talented and extremely motivated,” said Kristofic. “Both are very focused on the process: how to prepare, how to get ready. No real compromises checking all the boxes to make sure everything is ready every day. So real professionals.
“I’m incredibly fortunate to have worked with two great athletes like you. Sometimes I have to pinch myself.”
VARIOUS SPECIALTIES
Vonn’s best event was the downhill, the discipline with the fastest speeds and the greatest danger. Of her 82 victories, 43 came in the downhill and 28 in the super-G, which is just a bit slower and more technical.
Vonn also won four giant slaloms, two slaloms and five combined races – adding the times of slalom and downhill events.
Shiffrin’s best discipline is the slalom, the most technical competition and the one with the fastest changes of direction.
Shiffrin has won 51 slaloms, 17 giant slaloms, 5 Super-Gs, 3 downhills, 1 combination and 5 parallel runs – in which racers race down the same slope at the same time through separate gates.
OFF THE SLOPE
Both Vonn and Shiffrin have been involved in high-profile relationships.
Vonn was with Tiger Woods when she broke Annemarie Moser-Proell’s previous women’s record of 62 wins in 2015, and Woods surprised her when he flew into Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, for the celebration and showed up dressed up in a mask.
Shiffrin and her boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, who was the overall winner in 2020, are the sport’s current power couple.
TO COUNT
While Vonn was 33 when she achieved win #82, Shiffrin is only 27.
Shiffrin has competed in 233 World Cup races, Vonn started in 395 races.
Vonn and Shiffrin both won four overall World Cup titles – considered the greatest prize in the ski racing community – and Shiffrin is on course for a fifth title this season.
Marcel Hirscher holds the record with eight overall titles and Moser-Proell with six for women.
So, will Shiffrin end her career as the greatest skier of all time?
“The greatest of all time is difficult to say,” said Women’s World Cup director Peter Gerdol. “We are now talking about football, whether Pelé was better than (Diego) Maradona or better than (Lionel) Messi. It’s different situations, it’s different periods, different conditions, everything is different. She’s one of the greatest racers of all time, that’s for sure.”
OLYMPIC MEDALS
Both Vonn and Shiffrin won three Olympic medals. Vonn finished her Olympic career with one gold and two bronzes, while Shiffrin went on to win two golds and one silver Leaving Beijing empty-handed last year in one of the most disappointing performances of her career.
HEAD TO HEAD
Vonn and Shiffrin competed in a couple of major races towards the end of Vonn’s career.
Shiffrin won the silver in combined at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games when Vonn went off course in the second heat of her final Olympic race.
A month earlier in the Cortina descent, Vonn was second and Shiffrin third, which was the only race the two ever shared a podium. It was the same day that Julia Mancuso, another outstanding American, retired; and the race was won by Sofia Goggia, who succeeded Vonn as top downhiller.
“It was like all generations had crossed paths,” Vonn recalled.
At the 2019 World Championships in Åre, Sweden, Vonn fell as Shiffrin won the Super-G – although Vonn bounced back to take bronze in the downhill days later in the last race of her career.
HOW HIGH CAN SHIFFRIN GO?
It seems only a matter of time – maybe weeks – before Shiffrin overtakes Stenmark with win No. 87. So how many wins does she have?
“The ceiling,” said Kristofic, “is high.”
US Ski & Snowboard President & CEO Sophie Goldschmidt added, “I would argue that she has the potential to go down in history as America’s greatest female athlete of all time. What an award that would be and well deserved if it comes to that.”
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Denver-based AP sportswriter Pat Graham contributed to this report.
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Andrew Dampf can be reached at https://twitter.com/AndrewDampf
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