Not everything that sports stars post on social media has to be autobiographical to be authentic.

Mikaela Shiffrin is currently impressing on Instagram and Facebook with her version of “Galway Girl”, the happy hit by British songwriter Ed Sheeran: “She played the fiddle in an Irish band”, the multi-talented skier sings with a clear voice and accompanies her on guitar: "But she fell in love with an English man".

Achim Dreis

Sports editor.

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Now Shiffrin does not come from the County of Galway in the Irish province of Connacht, but from Vail in Colorado, and her love is not an Englishman, but the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. But the noticeably regained joie de vivre almost jumps at you. Kilde is also a successful skier, overall World Cup winner of the 2019/20 season, and thus a suitable partner for the American in the turbulent hiking circuit known as ski racing.

The 29-year-old also helps his three-year-old girlfriend to stay on course in life beyond the slopes. It works "like medicine," said Eileen Shiffrin, the athlete's mother, recently. Mikaela Shiffrin lost track of her father's sudden death as a result of a domestic accident in February 2020. “It was my worst injury,” she said in a press conference before the World Cup weekend in Levi, Northern Finland. “It wasn't as obvious as something physical,” but it hit her deeply and took a long time to get over the crippling grief halfway. And most importantly, in contrast to an ankle injury, there was “no road map”, no roadmap on how to deal with her “broken heart”.

The uncertainty could be seen for a long time in the otherwise hyper-precise athlete when she made her comeback in the 20/21 season. It had even been difficult for her to remember the course at times. Speed ​​races were not feasible for them for a while because of the "fog in their head". But the old Shiffrin showed up again at the World Cup in Cortina in spring 2021. She started in four races and won four medals, albeit “only bronze” in her favorite discipline, the slalom.

This gives her the chance to lead the tableau in the usual way in two races over the weekend in Levi (Saturday and Sunday, 10.30 am and 1.30 pm / live on ARD and Eurosport). She had already won the giant slalom opener in Sölden at the end of October in an impressive manner. And after crossing the finish line, she seemed a little freer than before from all the burden she was dragging around with her. She wasn't exuberant, but she smiled.

She then canceled the parallel event in Lech am Arlberg because she suffered from back problems. Nevertheless, she plans to complete as many races as possible in the upcoming season, in all disciplines, including downhill again. At the same time, she stated in Lapland that she had the focus in the here and now: “In Levi, I think of Levi.” Not of the overall World Cup, and certainly not of Beijing, where the Olympic Games are taking place in February.

It's the season highlight, not the career highlight for Shiffrin. She was already an Olympic champion in 2014. She was world champion at the age of 17, and almost a dozen of world championship medals belong to her. Mikaela Shiffrin has been touring the ski resorts around the world for almost a decade - and the question of how long she would like to continue skiing professionally is definitely on her mind. After the death of her father and in addition to the Corona crisis, it is now above all climate change that is bothering her.

The terms "travel" and "trouble" sound almost the same when Shiffrin pronounces them, and that outlines the problem. “I'm not a scientist,” she prefers, “but nature tells us that we're doing something very wrong and she's angry,” she said in Levi, referring to the increase in extreme weather, forest fires and snowstorms. "We break records in all fields," she said in the style of an athlete. As great as her journey through the world of skiing has been so far, she's been bothered by the thought of how negative her personal CO2 footprint is on the environment.

Although the calendar has already been adjusted and no longer causes as many air travel as it used to, overseas races are still on the agenda - like in Killington at the end of November.

Not to mention the madness of hosting the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.

“There could be a point where I end my career for environmental reasons,” she said in Levi - sounding very authentic.