Downhill remains a possibility for Mikaela Shiffrin after 'strong and

BEIJING â€" That went pretty well for Mikaela Shiffrin not having been on downhill skis for more than two months. Shiffrin had the ninth-fastest time, and best of the U. S. women, in the first downhill training run Saturday. More importantly, she felt good enough that she’s still planning on doing Tuesday’s downhill race at the Beijing Olympics, as well as the Alpine combined Thursday.“Today gives me a little bit more positivity, ” she said. “We’re going to have to see how things go as the days progress. There’s sections of this track that some of the more speed specialist skiers are going to excel at and are going to really improve (on).... I’m not sure exactly where and how I can improve. I just felt solid on my skis so I’ll try to keep up and we’ll see where the potential really is.“Looks good to race the downhill and, as far as safety or risk, I’m really happy to say it’s in a pretty good position. ”The combined is one run each of downhill and slalom, so Shiffrin would do the training runs regardless. But she has said multiple times that she hoped to do the downhill race, too, depending on how she felt in training. Because of the speed involved, and the elevated risk of danger that brings, Shiffrin has always taken a deliberate approach to downhill. If it doesn’t feel comfortable, or she doesn’t feel she’s had enough training, she’s not going to do it. She’s only done one downhill race this World Cup season, and that was back in the first week of December at Lake Louise. She had hoped to get in some more training before Beijing, but a bout with COVID between Christmas and New Year’s had her in isolation for 10 days.“It felt really nice. Almost a little bit surprising, ” Shiffrin said, smiling. “I was really happy to have this feeling on the track. Everything is running smooth, so that’s a pretty good feeling. u0026mldr; I felt strong and solid and in a good position. It was never scary at any point, just a little bit of that exhilarating feeling. ”The two-time Olympic champion has had a rough time in Beijing, skiing off the course five gates into her first run in both the giant slalom and slalom, her best events. She finished ninth in the super-G on Friday, and someone asked if that had taken the pressure off for her last events. Shiffrin will be a medal favorite again in the combined, where she is the reigning world champion and has a silver medal from the Pyeongchang Olympics.“To be honest? I think not finishing the GS and the slalom, that kind of took the pressure off, ” she said. “Performance-wise, expectations-wise, I pretty much checked that box. Not in a good way, but I checked it. Now it’s just trying to get the feeling on my skis that I’m actually doing a pretty good job.“Yesterday it was good execution and nearly how I thought it would feel, and that was really awesome to see, ” Shiffrin added. “Today it felt even better than I actually thought. So that’s also nice. ” All data is taken from the source: http://usatoday.com Article Link: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/beijing/2022/02/12/mikaela-shiffrin-first-downhill-training-beijing-winter-games/6764081001/ #good #news24 #newsworldwide #newstodayfox #newstodayheadlines #newstodayupdate #


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