Defending World Cup champion Petra Vlhova skipping World Cup speed races to focus on Olympic slalom duel
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Updated 15/12/2021 at 15:37 GMT
Mikaela Shiffrin's path to the overall World Cup title will be a bit easier this year with her main rival Petra Vlhova skipping most speed races to focus on the Olympics. But that puts the spotlight even more on the slalom duel in Beijing between the two, which shapes up as one of the must-see events of the Winter Games.
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Petra Vlhova seems to be going all out to challenge the American at the Beijing Olympics, even if that means sacrificing her overall World Cup title.
Vlhova says she’s sticking to her plan of skipping most of the World Cup speed races this season in order to maximise her chances of winning Olympic gold in the technical events.
“This is our plan, and we will keep (it) like this,” the Slovakian told reporters this week in a video conference call.
Vlhova won her first overall World Cup title last year after competing in every race across all disciplines. Her altered strategy this year makes Shiffrin an even bigger favourite to win her fourth crystal globe as the overall World Cup champion – and puts the spotlight on a mouthwatering duel between the two in Beijing.
Vlhova has emerged as the only skier who can challenge Shiffrin’s domination in slalom, winning two of the three World Cup races in the discipline this season. Shiffrin won the third, and the pair has finished 1-2 in all three.
Both are also among the favourites for the giant slalom gold at the Olympics, but it’s the slalom race in particular that’s shaping up as one of the must-see duels of the Beijing games.
Shiffrin is the defending Olympic champion in giant slalom and won the slalom gold in Sochi in 2014 as an 18-year-old. The American also won four straight world championship gold medals in slalom between 2013-2019, before finishing third last year.
Vlhova has one world championship title in giant slalom but has never won an Olympic medal. Going into Beijing, she’s determined to change that.
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“Maybe last season the goal was the overall, this year the main goal is going to be the Olympic Games,” Vlhova said before the season started.
Shiffrin, meanwhile, is taking somewhat of an opposite approach.
"If I could flash forward to the end of the season I'd be far more disappointed if I had essentially skied slow or not stacked up for any of the World Cup races, but somehow won an individual or multiple medals at the Olympics," Shiffrin said earlier this season. "Luck sways the Olympic results so much more than it does in any normal World Cup or when you look at the results for throughout an entire season."
Shiffrin is backing up those words by competing in the World Cup speed events this season after taking a break from them previously. And the American secured two third-place finishes in Super-G races in St. Moritz this past weekend to extend her overall lead in the World Cup standings.
Shiffrin leads speed specialist Sofia Goggia by 90 points, with Vlhova another 95 points behind in third place. And with Vlhova continuing to sit out the speed events, that big crystal globe already looks almost within reach for Shiffrin. An Olympic gold may prove harder to come by, if the Slovakian’s strategy works out as planned.
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