Giant slalom does not come easy to Shiffrin, who described her “love-hate relationship” with her third-best discipline. The importance of getting off to a winning start in her assault on the entire alpine skiing programme cannot be overstated. “It’s more difficult for me to find a really good rhythm [in giant slalom], so I need to train it a lot,” she said. She is the favourite in Friday’s slalom and next week’s alpine combined, which comprises one downhill run and one slalom run. Shiffrin has improved on a fifth-place giant slalom finish in Sochi that had gnawed at her in the biggest way possible.

Source: The Guardian February 15, 2018 06:06 UTC