Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby BrettBPotter » Tue Jan 18, 2022 7:28 am

I’m curious as to what you think about this fitness coach (Lackey) being eliminated right before the Olympics?
Seems interesting this incredible Athlete would do anything like this mid season and prior to maybe the most important Olympics she’ll ever participate!
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby jbotti » Tue Jan 18, 2022 9:02 am

They blamed it on Covid and he had nothing but nice things to say about Mikaela and the rest of team Shiffrin as he was departing. Hard to know the inside scoop. But for sure lingering positive covid tests have caused her and her coaches more than a few issues.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby h.harb » Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:46 am

It's mostly personalities and the right mix of psychological support. There isn't a big difference between what any of these coaches can bring as far as making a difference in her boot set up or her skiing. The best one she had 3 years ago was Dyksterhous, as far as a pure skiing coach. He was discarded because Eileen didn't get along with him.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby gozoogle » Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:05 am

Any thoughts on Shiffrin skiing out of 3 events at the Olympics? Purely mental or something else going on? Even with some of her struggles this World Cup season, this has been totally unexpected (and heartbreaking).
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby jbotti » Thu Feb 17, 2022 8:46 am

I think it's all in her head. Having said that, Harald has pointed out that her set up has never been right this year, possibly never, but in the past she beat everyone by 2 seconds or more so it didn't matter. I do think the loss of her Dad has been beyond traumatizing and she is left with her Helicopter mom who is constantly hovering. I think she needs to send her Mom home and have her watch on TV!

Resiliency is something people develop when they deal with loss and disappointment. In Mikaela's case, she hardly ever lost from age 6 til the past 18 months on the WC. She is having to learn a new mental skill set, the ability to forgive oneself and and find a way to press forward being positive (again after loss and disappointment). At times it appears that she is making some progress but she is still so crazy hard on herself.

She has nothing left to prove in ski racing. Its time to enjoy the process and be fine with the results, whatever they are.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby dougtee » Fri Feb 18, 2022 9:24 am

nothing to add but i wanted to say thats a really thoughtful post jbotti.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby h.harb » Tue Feb 22, 2022 2:03 pm

This is a post I wrote on my Facebook. It might shed more light on this topic. I agree with John about Shiffrin having it easy for a long time. She could win by skiing fast but under her limit. The same goes for her coaches. They have had it easy, they could sit back and watch her win or podium almost all the time. I am not convinced that much of her troubles can be attributed to her father's death; as she has won and performed well in two seasons and numerous occasions since.


John: Resiliency is something people develop when they deal with loss and disappointment.

Every top athlete is hard on themselves and it can be hugely destructive. This comment is right on the money, I think Shiffrin has yet to learn this. She has to figure out how to work through it.

Response to the question "What's wrong with her boots?" The first indication for either a boot issue or skis is, her ski is bouncing in the turn. The second is, she has leaned in twice in 2 races when the ski was going straight on her.

Everyone has commented on the snow being very positive, with a strong cuff and or overpowered sole alignment the ski digs. In addition, Atomic skis are very aggressive even without an aggressive edge tune. All these things add up.

There were times this season when Shiffrin was able to recover from those types of miscues. However, she knows that she can no longer just race a clean run and win. The other women have caught up to her. When you push or are pressing to go faster the risks are greater and recovery times to adapt to boot and ski edging difficulties is much shorter or nonexistent.

Her team has had it easy, Shiffrin has been so dominant with her basic skiing they didn't have to concern themselves with many of these issues, basically because she was winning. They don't have the confidence to change anything when things are going well. However, in the last two seasons, her setup has been adequate by most standards, but not good enough to always win. Vlhova has been beating Shiffrin in the slalom as have a few others in single runs. The honeymoon is over. Time to get down to some serious changes.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby jbotti » Sat Mar 05, 2022 9:21 am

"Just enjoyed skiing"

I feel confident she didn't read my post telling her she needed to just enjoy the process, but perhaps others have told her the same. Nice result!

https://www.espn.com/olympics/skiing/st ... rising-win

It will be interesting to see how she does in the GS tomorrow as her set up issues are more likely to be more problematic in tech than in speed. We know she can win with a suboptimal set-up as she has done it for years. But Hector is in a class by herself this year.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby dougtee » Fri Mar 18, 2022 10:23 am

how the heck did she win taht downhill?!
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby jbotti » Sun Mar 20, 2022 6:29 pm

I was talking yesterday with an ex US WC racer with 33 wins (who I will not name) about Mikaela at the olympics. I asked him if he thought it was all in her head. His response was, not at all. It was all about the equipment. He had a skied on Atomic for 2 season seasons and said it's a very aggressive set up and there could not be a worse match for the super grabby, aggressive snow they had in Beijing. He said that she had no shot and that no one on atomic in tech skied well. I asked why couldn't they do something about it once they got there and his response was that they had never seen anything like this before and they were dumfounded on how to try and fix it. He also said that Head and Fischer skis have always done well on aggressive snow.

Harald has been talking about the atomic set up for years and how aggressive it is.
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby HeluvaSkier » Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:03 am

jbotti wrote:He also said that Head and Fischer skis have always done well on aggressive snow.


My experience with Head vs. Fischer is that Head is even quite a few steps above Fischer on grippy snow. I own RD skis from both brands and when the snow is really aggressive, the Heads come out over the Fischers every time. Not to say the Fischer is 'bad' but they feel much more 'digital' on grippy snow, whereas the Heads are more 'analog' (both RD SL and RD GS).
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Re: Thoughts on MS team shakeup?

Postby jbotti » Mon Mar 21, 2022 8:48 am

Clearly the results at the Olympics bear this out. And that snow was beyond aggressive!!
In Beijing, there were 30 podium slots between the men and women (and not counting the team event). Of those, 15 went to Head, 7 went to Rossi (one was Dynastar but same thing) and only 3 went to Atomic (with Kilde getting 2 medals and Goggia one).

Fischer had zero.
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