Even as a record-tying sixth overall crystal globe slips away, Mikaela Shiffrin does not expect a return to the World Cup before the March 9-10 tech series in Are, Sweden.

The Edwards, Colo., skier, who injured her leg in a downhill crash on Jan. 26 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, gave an injury update in a video on Instagram on Sunday.

“I have been progressing well in the gym. I’m feeling better and better each day,” she said before adding that the March 9-10 World Cup weekend is still her expected return date.

Shiffrin, who had a comfortable lead in the overall standings at the time of the injury, now sits 205 points behind Lara Gut-Behrami. The Swiss skier also leads the downhill, giant slalom and super-G standings.

“She’s been stunning to watch,” Shiffrin said of Gut-Behrami, who could become the first person since Shiffrin in 2019 to claim four globes in one season.

“She’s really at such a high level of racing right now. As much as I want to be competitive with that right now, we all just have to sit back and appreciate that.”

The women’s World Cup super-G event planned in Val di Fassa, Italy last weekend was cancelled because of heavy snowfall. FIS announced those events will not be rescheduled.

Athletes are in Kvitfjell, Norway starting Thursday for a downhill and super-G before making their way to Are the following weekend. The season concludes with the World Cup Finals in Saalbach, Austria, March 16-24. Shiffrin admitted Sunday that once she realized a return to snow in Andorra (on Feb. 10-11) and Val di Fassa wasn’t going to be possible, tying Annemarie Moser-Proll with a sixth overall globe would be “mathematically, a really huge stretch.”

“It’s not really about fighting or not fighting for it, it just wasn’t possible,” she said. “Believe me, I would have tried if I remotely thought I could just simply make it to the finish of a course somewhat safely — I would have tried. It is not in the cards, yet. But I’m getting there.”

Shiffrin said she’s conducted two days of light slalom open gate training on flat terrain and tested out some light GS free skiing this week. Over the next 10 days, she hopes to increase the pitch and speed of her on snow sessions and use a variety of course settings.

“Ideally a little bit more aggressive surface that is more similar to a race venue,” she said.

Shiffrin said her injury absence has given her a chance to watch races “with kind of a fresh perspective.” She enjoyed seeing her fellow Americans A.J. Hurt and Paula Moltzan claim their respective first and third-career podiums in Soldeu earlier this month.

“That was so much fun to watch my teammates do that there. I just wish I was there to celebrate that with them,” she said.

“I for one am very excited to return in Are.”

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Mikaela Shiffrin crashed into the safety nets after losing control landing a jump during the World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Friday and was taken by ambulance to a clinic in Cortina.

She “is being evaluated for a left leg injury” her team told The Associated Press. “Initial analysis shows the ACL and PCL seem intact. Further details to come.”

Shiffrin, a four-time downhill winner on the World Cup, was only 17 seconds into her run when she floated over a small riser and landed on the inside left of the blue course paint. Approaching a sharp left-hand turn, her inside position on the landing forced her to swerve right in order to avoid colliding with the gate, which sent her careening into the net.

A three-minute blackout on skiandsnowboard.live occurred immediately following the crash as the race was delayed for an extended period. The AP reported that “medics tended to Shiffrin immediately and she eventually got up and limped away for more care.” Eventually, she was helped off the course with her left boot raised off the snow.

Later, Corinne Suter pulled up clutching her left knee after landing hard in the same spot where Shiffrin fell. Federica Brignone also crashed following the long race delay due to Shiffrin’s fall. The former overall champion got up right away, however, and skied down the hill uninjured.

“It’s never easy when you see so many girls doing mistakes and crashing,” 2018 Olympic downhill gold medalist Sofia Goggia, who was tied for third with Christina Ager and Valerie Grenier, told FIS media.

“You have to just think about your lines and stay focused on what you can do, but for sure, Mikaela Shiffrin, Brignone, Suter are three big names and when it happens to girls like this, you think a little bit more.”

All told, 12 of the 52 starters posted DNFs. The weather was clear and sunny, but warm.

Stephanie Venier took the win at the 2026 Olympic venue, gunning the 760-meter Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 33.06 seconds. Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami (1:33.45) finished second and Grenier, Ager and Goggia rounded out the podium, 0.71 seconds off of Venier’s standard.

“My run was super nice …my skis were very fast today,” Venier told FIS.

“I was not expecting that at all, that’s for sure,” Grenier said, adding that she “came here to score points” and is still getting used to the long skis.

“I’m still kind of learning about downhill, but this hill I know so well — I’ve done Cortina so many times now. That’s why I decided to come race here because I felt confident doing it. The snow was really nice.”

Jacqueline Wiles, Lauren Macuga and Isabella Wright led the American finishers in 13th, 16th and 18th, respectively.

“It is arguable one of the greatest accomplishments of Mikaela Shiffrin’s endlessly decorated career in that she’s only been out of action six weeks — and that from an MCL sprain, back in 2015 — and has otherwise been injury free,” said longtime Alpine analyst Steve Porino on the skiandsnowboard.live broadcast.

Shiffrin injured her right MCL warming up for a giant slalom in Are, Sweden in December of 2015.

Shiffrin and Brignone join a list of former crystal globe winners who have crashed during the 2023-2024 season. Alexis Pinturault, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, and Petra Vlhova suffered season-ending injuries in the past two weeks.

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With her chief rival, Petra Vlhova, out for the year after suffering a knee injury on her home snow in Saturday‘s giant slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin’s path to World Cup win No. 95 seemed already set in stone.

But the American needed to pull out some last-sector slalom heroics to hold off Croatian youngster Zrinka Ljutic and take the win in Jasna, Slovakia on Sunday.

“It was not easy on the second run,” Shiffrin told FIS media. “I could hear the crowd going crazy for a couple of athletes and I’m like, ‘No, this race is very far away from over and I need to push.'”

Shiffrin had a 1.35-second advantage over the next competitor in run No. 1 until Ljutic, skiing from bib 17, rocketed down the 68-gate Lukova 2 slope just 0.52 seconds behind the seven-time slalom crystal globe winner.

“I knew she (Ljutic) put down an amazing run and I had to push,” Shiffrin said of the 2022 slalom world junior champion. Shiffrin’s lead shrunk to just 0.02 seconds on the penultimate split of run No. 2, but the Edwards skier found her groove and posted the fastest final sector of the field to ensure a 0.14-second win.

“I didn’t feel perfect but I felt good, so I’m super happy with it,” said Shiffrin, who passed Ingemar Stenmark for the most World Cup slalom podiums (82). It was her 150th World Cup podium across all events, which is just five short of Stenmark’s record in that category.

Anna Swenn Larsson used the second-fastest second run to move up from fifth to third — 0.81 seconds from Shiffrin’s standard — bumping Camille Rast off of what would have been her first individual World Cup podium. It was the 31-year-old Swede’s third top-five finish in the last four slaloms.

“I struggled a lot this season, especially the first races,” said Swenn Larsson, whose best result in the first four events was just 15th.

“I had some problems with my body and now everything just feels really well — mind and body. I’m feeling really strong again.”

Ljutic, who has two podiums on her resume — she was third in Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic last January in addition to her runner-up on Sunday — was pleased to have “skied even better in the second run than the first.”

“I’m proud of myself for managing this pressure in the second run,” she told FIS media. “I think I took a glimpse of what it’s like to be so close to the win. It was really tight and it’s definitely worth it, it’s worth every DNF (four) that I’ve had this season.”

Paula Moltzan finished in 18th for the U.S. and Lila Lapanja was 27th. A.J. Hurt had the 16th-best first run but failed to finish her second.

With Vlhova sidelined, Shiffrin can clinch her eighth slalom World Cup season title in the next event in Soldeu, Andorra on Feb. 11. She currently leads the third-ranked skier Lena Duerr, by 228 points with just three events left. Duerr, who finished seventh on Sunday, is the last athlete other than Shiffrin or Vlhova to win a World Cup slalom in the last 15 events.

“I have been thinking about (Vlhova) a lot the last 24 hours,” Shiffrin said. “For me, personally, over these years I have grown to love the battles with her. I think today she would have been so strong. So, I really miss watching her ski today and having that battle.”

Shiffrin will head to Cortina d’Ampezzo for speed races next week. A pair of downhills are set for Jan. 26 and 27, followed by a super-G on Jan. 28.

“It’s not really rest,” she said. “But a different pace, so I’m looking forward to it.”

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Mikaela Shiffrin said every year she wonders if it’s “smart” to go to St. Moritz or if she should just take time to recover and prepare for the next series of tech races.

On Saturday, she made the trip worth it.

The 28-year-old skied a clean top section out of bib No. 3 and held on at the bottom to claim her fourth World Cup downhill win in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Shiffrin bombed the Corviglia course in 1 minute, 28.84 seconds to hold off three-time defending downhill crystal globe winner Sofia Goggia by just 0.15 seconds. Federica Brignone (1:29.01) rounded out the podium.

“I’m always wondering, should I be going to do the downhill, should I just focus on super-G and also get GS and slalom training. I really want to make it worth it,” Shiffrin said after her record-extending 91st World Cup win and third victory of the 2023-2024 season.

“So of course being on the podium is incredible and if does end up being a victory, then that’s pretty special.”

“My run was maybe not so clean as other downhills I did in the past,” said Goggia, the winner of Friday’s super-G. “But anyway I’m happy (all) the same because even with the mistake and with dirty lines, I’m still second.”

Goggia, who had five wins and three second-place downhill finishes last year, was not surprised by Shiffrin’s skiing. The Italian was impressed with Shiffrin’s stamina while the pair trained downhill last April.

“I knew that she (Shiffrin) could be really the one to beat today,” Goggia continued. “She has already won some downhills in her career, and Shiffrin is always Shiffrin. You can also expect that she comes first.”

The Vail Valley skier also recorded downhill wins in Lake Louise (2017), Bansko (2020) and Courchevel (2022). On Saturday, she posted the fastest first and second sector splits.

“You had to push. I really did,” Shiffrin said before adding that it was “helpful” to have skied the course last year — where she placed sixth and fourth (before winning the super-G on the final day of the weekend). “I knew what to expect and that experience helped so much, so I’ve been more calm this week learning the downhill track again.”

Shiffrin said the biggest challenge she faced was trusting that if she didn’t ski the perfect line, she could “still dive into the turn with confidence.”

“Normally with downhill, I sometimes struggle to ski the course very fluidly. I try to ski the perfect line, but then somebody else skis something different, so I always feel like I’m chasing it,” she said. “And today I kind of forgot about that part and just focused on the skiing.” 

Shiffrin’s wide turns toward the bottom gave Goggia an opportunity to snatch the win.

“I felt very good with my skiing but on the very end I had one small mistake,” Shiffrin continued. “I wasn’t sure if the rest of the run was good enough to kind of be fast with this — and you kind of can’t see it, but I was losing some time at the bottom. Just watching Sofia was like, ‘I have a chance to win this race if she’s not perfect on it.'”

In the end, that’s exactly what happened. The 2018 Olympic downhill gold medalist was only the 10th and 15th fastest through the final two sectors.

Brignone, fresh off back-to-back GS victories in Tremblant, Quebec last weekend, skied perhaps the cleanest run from Bib No. 1.

“I’m really happy about my performance, I did everything that I wanted to do,” the 33-year-old, who finished fifth in Friday’s super-G, said. “I was smooth on the flat parts and aggressive on the turns — that’s what I was looking for yesterday and I didn’t find it.” 

The Italian is currently the closest challenger to Shiffrin in the overall standings. The American has 620 points, 195 clear of Brignone. Shiffrin also leads the slalom and downhill disciplines, is third in GS and sits fourth in super-G. When asked if her win meant she might consider chasing the downhill globe, Shiffrin laughed.

“I don’t think I can even try for (the) downhill globe if I’m still racing slalom. It’s just not possible,” she said before pointing out the upcoming World Cup schedule: another super-G in St. Moritz on Sunday, followed by a downhill and super-G in Val d’Isere, France Dec. 14-17 and then a night slalom in Courchevel, France on Dec. 21.

“It’s a quick switch. That’s when it starts to get pretty exhausting, but if I have good momentum, then mostly it’s just exciting. I don’t expect to really be winning downhills all the time, so I’m just happy with the day.”

Shiffrin did say, however, she’s always enjoyed watching skiers who push in every event.

“But it’s very difficult and the schedule is basically impossible to do every race and succeed all the time. It’s a lot of racing,” she said. “Right now, the way the schedule works, I think more people don’t want to do every event. More people will probably specialize.”

One reporter asked Shiffrin if she’d consider speaking with FIS about tweaking the schedule to allow for athletes to more easily contend in all four disciplines.

“Yes and no. It’s a little bit a conversation that’s happening, but over the years it’s not a lot of interest to change how many races there are,” she said.

“Normally if anybody from my team is saying something then it’s like, ‘well you can choose to do less; then it’s not as hard.’ And I mean, I guess that’s also an answer. I think it’s really exciting to watch people race in anything. For sure it’s hard and challenging.”

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The Superstar slope continues to be home, sweet home for skiing’s biggest superstar.

After Sunday’s commanding 0.33-second victory, Mikaela Shiffrin has won six of the seven World Cup slaloms held at Killington Resort.

“It’s amazing to do this, especially here, with the home crowd,” said the Edwards skier, who honed her skills nearby at the Burke Mountain Academy as a teenager.

“It’s just such a good vibe and there’s a little extra intensity because we want this to be good for you guys to watch. I hope it was a good show.”

The World Cup’s all-time winningest Alpine skier nabbed career-victory No. 90 on the second day of the Killington World Cup weekend — she was third in the giant slalom on Saturday. It was also her 55th-career World Cup slalom win and second victory of the 2023-2024 season. Shiffrin was handed the Nov. 12 slalom in Levi, Finland when Petra Vlhova threw away a one-second lead by straddling a gate and posting a second-run DNF. On Sunday, Vlhova finished second, but Shiffrin — who had the fastest first and second runs — didn’t need any good fortune to claim the top step this time. The American’s two-run time on the 200-meter drop was 1 minute, 42.02 seconds.

After the first run, she had a 0.19-second lead on Lena Duerr of Germany and 0.28-second advantage on Vlhova.

“I feel like I’m not playing with it as much as I want to, but it’s really good, solid technique, it’s really solid power,” Shiffrin said after the first run.

“There’s somehow another percentage that I’m trying to push and trying to get back, but I think that was a really, really good first run.”

An aggressive second run from Vlhova, the defending Olympic champion in the event, put pressure on Shiffrin, the last athlete left in the starting gate. The 28-year-old lost half of her first-run lead by the first split, but gradually gained it back throughout the course.

After a quiet 2022-2023 season, Vlhova has looked sharp in the first month of World Cup competition, claiming the opening slalom in Levi on Nov. 11 and leading the Nov. 12 event before her DNF. On Sunday, the rivals were once again well clear of the rest of the field. Wendy Holdener would round out the podium, but finished a full 1.04 seconds back from Vlhova, who was 0.33 off of Shiffrin’s pace.

For the second day in a row, Paula Moltzan finished in eighth place as the second American. Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumna Allie Resnick finished 49th in the first run, failing to qualify for a second.

Shiffrin leads both the slalom and overall cup standings and is fourth in the giant slalom. She’ll have a chance to move up in the latter category next weekend, as the World Cup continues with a pair of giant slaloms in Tremblant, Canada on Dec. 2-3.

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The door was wide open for Mikaela Shiffrin, but she couldn’t walk through.

In the Olympic Alpine event which requires athletes to showcase their range of abilities as both speed and technical skiers Mikaela Shiffrin was perfectly positioned to finally earn a medal at the 2022 Olympics in the Alpine combined. After a humbling start to the Beijing Games that included disqualifications in her two strongest events — the slalom and giant slalom — the World Cup overall leader sat in fifth after the downhill portion of the two-event competition which combines a downhill and a slalom run to form a total time. With only speed skiers in front of her, Shiffrin had a golden opportunity for a medal, but skied out of the slalom course at the tenth gate.

Swiss skiers Michelle Gisin and Wendy Holdener won gold and silver, respectively, with the Italian Federica Brignone earning the bronze.

A generally mistake-free downhill put Shiffrin just 0.56 seconds behind the Austrian leader Christine Scheyer after the first event. The just four primarily speed skiers in front of the 26-year-old, the 47-time World Cup winner in the slalom had good reason to be licking her chops. Yet, based on quotes coming between the two runs, that wasn’t exactly the case.

“It’s nice to know I have some practice and certainly a lot of speed in slalom,” Shiffrin said to the New York Times after the downhill.

“But I also have a little bit of, I don’t know, I have to overcome the image that I am going to ski out on the fifth gate. I am just trying to stay calm because I think I was doing pretty well with that this morning. Stay calm and have a good run at slalom.”

In 2018, when the American took the silver medal in the combined event, a discipline she also won at the most recent World Championships in 2021, she was in sixth after the downhill. The improved mark may have come from on behalf of an equipment change.

According to NBC reports, Shiffrin road down the Rock course Thursday on skis belonging to Sofia Goggia, the Italian downhill gold (2018) and silver medalist (2022). Goggia, who knows a little something about overcoming calamity and rising to the occasion on the piste — she suffered a viscous fall in late January and narrowly recovered in time for her inspiring silver medal downhill performance a few days ago — left a note for the American on the skis: “FLY MIKA, YOU CAN.”

Shiffrin rode an aggressive line at the top of the Rock course, clipping a few gates but remaining low and aerodynamic. She stayed smooth throughout the icy course, even gaining a few tenths back at the bottom of the 2,704 meter long track. Her teammate Keely Cashman, who took to the course immediately prior to Shiffrin, sat in seventh place.

“I was just trying to stay calm and not think about the course too much and not try to make too much of a strategy, but just ski it and find my tuck whenever I could,” Shiffrin told the New York Times after the downhill. In 2018, she had 1.21 seconds to make up on eventual winner Michelle Gisin.

The Swiss skier returned Thursday to defend her Olympic title from PyeongChang. Only Croatia’s Janica Kostelic (2002, 2006) and Germany’s Maria Hofl-Riesch (2010, 2014) had ever defended the Olympic gold in the event before Gisin replicated the accomplishment.

After the downhill, Gisin sat in 12th place. The bronze medalist from four years ago, teammate Wendy Holdener — perhaps Shiffrin’s biggest competition on paper going into the slalom — lurked in 11th. Holdener also won the discipline’s globe in 2016 and 2018. The leader, Scheyer, entered the competition without a single Olympic or World Championship medal and has only one World Cup win, a downhill victory from 2017.

The Austrian went first down the icy slalom hill, setting the standard at 56.83. Ester Ledecka, sitting in second, found 0.94 seconds on Scheyer, posting the new best at 55.89. Ledecka, who famously won both Alpine ski super-G and parallel giant slalom snowboard golds in 2018, made a mistake on the second gate in the downhill but still posted the second-fastest time of the day and began the slalom just 0.01 seconds behind Scheyer. In the end, she wound up in the undesirable fourth position.

Austria’s Ramona Siebenhofer, primarily a downhill skier, didn’t have much to give in the slalom and went into third place after her run. France’s Romane Miradoli, starting fourth, straddled a gate to end her day, bringing up the American with a golden — literally — opportunity.

Unfortunately, Shiffrin’s Beijing woes continued. Despite finding her rhythm through the first nine gates, she dropped low late on the tenth, throwing herself out of position and skidding to a stop on the icy, steep slope. Five of the first 10 skiers posted a DNF, including fellow Americans Keely Cashman and Isabella Wright. Tricia Mangan was the only of the red, white and blue to get to the bottom of the hill, finishing in 11th.

Federica Brignone, a two-time combined globe winner (2019, 2020) and another one of the pre-race contenders, struggled to find her speed and sat in eighth, 0.69 seconds out of first after the downhill, but blitzed the slalom course to take an early lead and eventually earn bronze.

Switzerland was hoping to become the first nation since 1988 to podium in every Alpine event. Holdener put a full 1.10 seconds on Brignone’s time to take a 0.80 second lead, though ultimately displayed disappointment over her silver. Right after her, Gisin blew the door open, gunning down the hill in just 52.25 seconds, over a second faster than her teammate, more than two seconds faster than Brignone, and over three seconds faster than Ledecka’s fourth-best mark. The remarkable performance gave her an untouchable 1.06 second lead on the field.

Notably absent from the start list was the Slovakian superstar Petra Vlhova, who’s ankle tendon injury forced her to sit out.

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From his first World Cup podium at Beaver Creek in 2006 through his world championship gold in 2015 at the same venue, his skis have always come and gone across the snow like lightning — Ligety-split.

And now Ted Ligety’s persona will remain on the vaunted Birds of Prey course permanently. The multiple Olympic and world champion Alpine skier was recognized before Saturday’s downhill competition with the unveiling of “Ligety’s Legacy,” getting his name on a part of the course to honor the man who was victorious five times at Beaver Creek.

Ligety is second all-time behind Hermann Maier on the all-time Birds of Prey wins list. His likeness is now etched into the course alongside fellow American legends Daron Rahlves and Bode Miller, a worthy reward for the newly retired former Olympic and world champion.

“That’s a true honor to be commemorated on the slope,” Ligety said before Saturday’s event, which included speeches from former coaches and teammates. “It’s been a hill that’s created so many amazing memories for me and given me so much success. So, that’s a true honor for sure.”

“There is a special connection between the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team and the Xfinity Birds of Prey at Beaver Creek, and Ted’s hard-earned achievement as the winningest American ski racer ever on the legendary course is a feat to be celebrated,” said Mike Imhof, president of the Vail Valley Foundation, which is the local organizing committee for the World Cup races. “For years, having Ted win or podium on our final Sunday competition was a perfect culmination of the exciting World Cup weekend. It has been an honor to watch Ted fiercely compete each year at Beaver Creek, and we wish Ted the very best as he moves on from ski racing and into his next adventure.”

Known as Mr. GS, the technical skier’s love for the Beaver Creek hill is more tied to the giant slalom, the discipline where all five of his Birds of Prey victories came. The super-G course has a special place in his heart, too, however. Ligety likes how it forces skiers to demonstrate a wide range of skills and tactics.

“It’s tricky. There’s a lot of little pieces of terrain where you have to take a lot of risk to keep your speed up, but also, if you make a mistake in one of those places, your race is pretty much done,” he said. “It’s really unique in the sense that it really melds the technical aspect of super-G but also has some gliding pieces, has some jumps, and it has everything you’d really wish for on a super-G track.”

Having retired at the end of last season, Ligety has been in Beaver Creek this week to do some analyst work for NBC. It’s hard to say if being in the booth is more nerve-wracking than the Olympic starting gate according to Ligety, but the energy and excitement, if nothing else, help him feel connected to the sport.

“It is an adjustment,” he said, explaining how the novelty of the job drives much of the enjoyment. “It’s actually fun, I think, because I’m new to it right now. I still get a little bit of those pre-race jitters. Just like feeling some of that race energy and being a part of it is fun. So, who knows if that will wear off as I do it a little bit more,” he said.

“I’m definitely learning a lot and learning on the fly for sure.”

Looking toward the future

The new vantage point has given the longtime staple to the American lineup a positive perspective as he analyzes the state of his former team. He believes the young crop of racers coming up has a unique opportunity.

“The U.S. ski team is definitely in a little bit different spot,” he said noting his own retirement along with others. “On that tech side, it’s a lot of young guys you know, so that can be a cool, fun environment to push each other,” he said, echoing the sentiment of River Radamus from earlier in the week regarding the culture of positive competition and camaraderie within the men’s team.

“You know, there’s not a lot of World Cup experience in the tech side anymore for anybody to be able to feed off of, but at the same time, a little bit of naivety and just firing up and just pushing each other can be a good thing as well.”

So far, he sees evidence of the bright future of American skiing. “River stepping up that first race was really cool to see,” he said before talking about how the long-term progress is still a process requiring patience.

It’s a process he has now stepped away from, devoting time once spent doing squats and cleans to being with family and working on his business, Shred, which makes eyewear and protective wear for skiers and snowboarders.

“I’ve been spending a lot more time on my business,” he said. “It’s been fun to dive more deeply into that on a regular basis and help grow that business.”

His commentary work with NBC, which he anticipates continuing through the Beijing Winter Olympics, and work he does with his sponsors and partners, keep him connected to the sport. The occasional mountain bike ride does, too, albeit minus the Garmin.

“It always was for fun. But, to just kind of do all these activities that I love doing more for fun and without having to have a super regimented workout plan is nice,” he said about the notable absence of target heart rate zones and fancy GPS monitors. “So it’s definitely been vastly different than it was. But it’s been a nice change. Honestly, it’s been nice to go into the gym every day for four-plus hours a day. That’s been a joy.”

All of his endeavors still have him running a pretty busy schedule, which includes some travel. Still, his daily routine is much different than it had been for the better part of the previous two decades.

“My life was very similar month to month for 17 years straight,” he said. “It’s nice being able to spend more time at home. Being away from home for a week is nice, but being away from home for six weeks to six months is not that nice. So it’s nice spending more time at home with the family. That life has been really enjoyable. As of right now, I don’t miss those aspects of what I was doing before.”

While Ligety may not miss certain parts of his ski career, American fans surely miss him ripping around gates, flashing down the hill. At least now they’ll be able to savor the memories — the legacy — each time they see the map and ski the mountain.

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