For Mikaela Shiffrin, the award for the best slalom skier this season is different from the 15 crystal globes the American star won earlier in her career.
This one, for a change, does not feel like the end of a season.
Shiffrin on Saturday capped her campaign that was marred by a recent six-week injury layoff with her record-extending 60th win in slalom and 97th overall at the World Cup finals.
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She had already locked up her record-equaling eighth slalom season title last week by winning her first race back since hurting her knee in a downhill crash Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy in January, but globes are only handed over after the last race.
“It was like a middle season for me. I’m probably the most excited one to be here. Everyone wants to be home and I’m like: ‘No! We’ve just started again’,” said Shiffrin, adding her feeling had “a lot to do with the crowd here cheering so much. It gives this emotion like what we want to feel at races, so I’m already excited to be back.”
Shiffrin, who turned 29 on Wednesday, wrote on Instagram that the slalom would be her last race of the season, skipping yesterday’s giant slalom and this week’s speed events.
“I am so happy to have these final two races, like they give me something to be really proud of,” Shiffrin said.
The two-time Olympic champion sprained the medial collateral ligament and tibiofibular ligament in her knee, while also still recovering from a bone bruise she had sustained at the start of the season, when she was among a slew of World Cup, Olympic and world champions to crash hard in a packed January program, including her partner Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
“Oh wow, it’s been a wild season,” Shiffrin said. “I am excited to see Alex, I am excited to go home, but I don’t want the season to be over.”
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