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SPORTS A17
Friday 10 March 2017

With 6 races left, Shiffrin closing in on overall title

PAT GRAHAM United States’s Mikaela Shiffrin competes in an alpine ski, women’s World Cup combined race, in Crans Montana, Switzerland,
AP Sports Writer Sunday, Feb. 26, 2017.
With every race, Mikaela
Shiffrin draws closer to a Associated Press
couple of things she just
can’t stop thinking about:
An overall World Cup title.
That much-needed vaca-
tion in Maui.
No time to imagine the
beach, though. Still too
much work left to do on
snow.
The Olympic slalom cham-
pion has a 178-point lead
over Ilka Stuhec of Slove-
nia with six races remaining
— all on U.S. slopes. There
are two events this week at
Squaw Valley in California,
before the season con-
cludes next week with the
World Cup Finals in Aspen,
Colorado.
For most of the season,
Shiffrin refused to give her
chances at an overall
crown much thought.
Lately, the skier from Eagle-
Vail embraces the possibil-
ity.
“I was worried people
would think I am too am-
bitious, or the overall is
too lofty of a goal for me.
But obviously it is a very
reasonable goal,” Shiffrin
wrote in an email to The
Associated Press. “I’m not
worried what other people
think about it anymore.”
This week, she and her fel-
low racers tackle the Red
Dog course at Squaw Val-
ley, which hosts a World
Cup event for the first time
since 1969. She’s quite fa-
miliar with the hill, too, hav-
ing won a giant slalom title
at the 2014 U.S. champion-
ships. There’s a GS race Fri-
day, followed a day later
by the slalom — her spe-
cialty.
Then, it’s off to Aspen for
the season finale.
No extra nerves, Shiffrin
said, even if it’s close to her
hometown.

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