“Fly Mika, you can!”
Colleague almost moves Shiffrin to tears
02/17/2022, 06:18 am
Mikaela Shiffrin has experienced Olympic Games to forget: the most successful skier of the present is miles away from a medal. In the combination, the chance of precious metal is now very real. The American has a big emotional moment even before the start.
Great feelings once again for ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin: Shortly before the alpine combination on Thursday, the American, who has experienced great disappointment at the Olympic Winter Games in China, almost shed tears again. But this time not out of frustration, but out of joy. For the descent, Shiffrin had been provided with the skis of Olympic silver medalist Sofia Goggia. And the Italian gave her a touching message.
“Fly Mika, you can” was written on a small piece of paper stuck to the skis. “I saw it at the start and almost started crying,” Shiffrin told NBC. She wore the skis in fifth place. A good starting position for the decisive slalom, which is Shiffrin’s parade discipline. “I’m grateful I was able to get a feel for them and fly as best I could,” said the US star. So far, the games in China have been a debacle for Shiffrin. She was the favorite in both giant slalom and slalom and was eliminated early in each case. So far there has been 9th and 18th place for 2022 in the Olympic statistics for the most successful skier of the present.
She felt “emotionally tired,” says Shiffrin frankly before the combination, and with this “dullness” in the head, it’s not fast. “It was hard to read all the headlines: kicked out, failed, disappointed the world,” she said. She had already celebrated Olympic gold medals in 2014 and 2018, “but that doesn’t take away the pain”. Now she has the best chance of a medal before the slalom (from 7 a.m. / ZDF and in the live ticker on ntv.de).
“Speed Queen” Sofia Goggia is not at the start in the combination. The Italian, who had won every downhill race she finished before the Olympics, only competed in her favorite discipline in Beijing. There, the 25-year-old took silver behind Corinne Suter from Switzerland. It is a small miracle that Goggia competed in an Olympic race at all: three weeks before the opening ceremony, she sustained a knee injury in a fall.
“I fell and said to my coach, ‘I can’t do this.’ How am I supposed to do the descent? I had a lot of pain in my knee,” said the Italian at Eurosport. But give up? She never gave up. “I really believed in it, even on the darkest days,” she was quoted as saying by the Italian FA. “I dedicate this medal to myself because I was in the starting gate and to all the people who believed in me and took my hand on this path that seemed to vanish into thin air after Cortina.”