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Giovanni Maria Pizzato/AP
Mikaela Shiffrin ended her bid for a women’s record-tying sixth overall World Cup title earlier this month, but on Friday she praised the “masterful” skiing of standings leader Lara Gut-Behrami.
In an online call from Sweden, Shiffrin revealed her limited race plans for the rest of the season and also talked about being sidelined with an injury at the same time as her boyfriend Alexander Ahmott Kilde.
Both riders had serious crashes during downhill races in January, and Shiffrin said the deep laceration Kilde sustained in her calf was a “life-or-death situation.”
Shiffrin will return to racing Sunday in Are’s slalom, six weeks after being airlifted from the track with knee and leg injuries in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
The five-time World Cup overall champion then held a 340-point lead over Gut Behrami. She currently has a lead of nearly 400 points.
With six races left and up to 600 points to win, Shiffrin said she has three races to start and won’t be able to close the gap to third place. 2020 champion Federica Brignone is Gut-Behrami’s only rival for the title.
“I want to fight for the overall (title), but I also have to accept where I am this season,” the American star told reporters.
Shiffrin will skip Saturday’s giant slalom and two speed events (downhill and super-G) in the final race of the season in Saalbach, Austria, on March 22 and 23.
This will likely secure her eighth career title in the season-long event rankings in two slalom races (Are and Saalbach on March 16). Another option is the giant slalom in Saalbach on March 17th.
“I just do what I can do,” Shiffrin said, admitting that it took until last week to reach “race intensity” with slalom-only training.
While Shiffrin recovers, Gut-Behrami has soared with five wins and is on track to win the second overall title of her career. The Swiss star first competed in 2016, a year before Shiffrin hit her prime.
“She’s been great this season, very consistent, very strong,” Shiffrin said of Gut-Behrami’s 32-year-old career.
“I’m just a fan of the sport, too,” said Shiffrin, who turns 29 on Wednesday. “I love watching Lara ski. I feel like she really pushed the bar this year.”
Ms. Shiffrin and Ms. Kilde were in rehab in Austria and were able to spend “quite a few dinners together,” she said.
Kilde’s injuries were more serious, with her dislocated shoulder “literally blown apart,” Shiffrin said. “He’s developing really well now and he’s starting to walk a little bit. It’s a long journey.”
She traveled from Austria to Switzerland to be with Kilde, who crashed in Wengen on January 13.
“It was a life-or-death situation for eight hours with a cut like that,” Shiffrin said. “For me, the moment I saw him on TV, there was no emotion.
“I was like, ‘How do I get to him?'” What can I do to help? ‘His family couldn’t arrive until the next day,’ she said of her Norwegian partner, the overall 2020 Men’s World Cup winner.
“We have grown together in a way over the last few years of our careers.”
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