Sölden Wednesday: Shiffrin and Robinson get ready to take on the glacier

Superstar Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) says it's been an "incredible journey" to make it to the start gate for the season-opening Giant Slalom race in Sölden on Saturday, but cautioned that her skiing is still "a work in progress".

Shiffrin, whose 101 World Cup wins are the most in Alpine skiing history, endured a distressing 2024/25 season after suffering a puncture wound in a Giant Slalom race in Killington last November.

She returned later in the season to win two World Cup Slalom races, including her historic 100th victory, but struggled in Giant Slalom and later described battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following the injury.

"It's been an incredible journey to work from the end of last season, where I had a total mind-body disconnect, to where I am now," Shiffrin said in a conference call on Wednesday.

"I feel that I'm more in control of the improvements I'm making, where I want to be skiing – and it's just a matter of doing it, in a sport that is challenging."

After tentatively skiing three Giant Slalom races at the back end of last season, with a best finish of 25th, the 2018 Olympic champion in the discipline has ramped up her training ahead of Sölden.

"I've been really prioritizing Giant Slalom, trying to just continue to work through exposure to the speed and the tactics, and it's taken a lot," the two-time Sölden winner said.

"It's still very much a work in progress to be able to take on the full speed of a GS course."

With her focus for this season on Giant Slalom and Slalom, Shiffrin has ruled out competing in Downhill and is unsure if she will fully commit to Super G with the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games on the horizon.

"I would love to get a feeling for where I stand in Super G in a World Cup race," she admitted. "Basically, St. Moritz (on 14 December) will be the opportunity for me to see where I stand, if it's even possible to qualify (for the Olympics).

"And if it's not, then I will move forward with GS and Slalom and narrow my focus."

While Milano Cortina 2026 is already on everyone's mind just over 100 days from the opening ceremony, the two-time Olympic gold medalist isn't focusing on the Games yet as the season gets underway.

"I don't think I know really many ski racers who would target the (Olympic) Games over World Cup performance, and the idea that most of us tend to have is the more consistently you perform through the World Cup season, the more you will have momentum, some level of confidence and competence to bring into the Games," she said.

With that World Cup mindset, Shiffrin will again look to equal Annemarie Moser-Pröll's (AUT) women's record of six big globes, but unlike in previous seasons, it seems a distant goal for the five-time winner this year.

"The short answer is, the overall is a beautiful thing to dream about, and those dreams haven't stopped for me," the 30-year-old said.

"But I'm right now feeling realistic, taking the season step by step. I think there will be improvements to make probably every single race this season."

Fire burning for Robinson as she takes another shot at a crystal globe

Having fallen at the last hurdle in her bid for a first crystal globe last season, Alice Robinson (NZL/Salomon) learned from the experience and is ready to get back up and charge again.

The 23-year-old led the Giant Slalom standings going into the 2024/25 World Cup finals in Sun Valley, but skied out in the first run, allowing Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol) to claim the discipline title.

"The idea of the possibility of a globe was a new thing for me," Robinson said in a conference call on Wednesday.

"I'm feeling like having that experience and obviously a bit of disappointment from the end of last year following an awesome season definitely kept the fire burning for this offseason to try and work harder to be more prepared and to mentally know how to deal with those higher intensity, higher pressure moments."

Although the season didn't finish the way Robinson had hoped for, her spectacular form yielded seven podiums in nine World Cup Giant Slalom races and her first win in four years, as well as a silver medal at the world championships.

"Last year was such a big step forward for me, or last year and even the year before with being a lot more consistent," said Robinson, who burst onto the World Cup tour with three victories as a teenager but couldn't produce regular podium results.

"I was so fast as a young skier and an all-or-nothing kind of skier, and I think that was a big step forward in the last couple of years, is learning how to rein in the GS to be fast across all the different slopes, all the different conditions, different races every weekend.

"So that was a huge tick for me."

To kick off her 2025/26 campaign, Robinson returns to the scene of her first World Cup victory as a 17-year-old in 2019, but that doesn't mean she feels she has conquered the Rettenbach glacier.

"I think it's probably the toughest women's slope, or one of the toughest," she said. "Obviously, that massive sustained pitch is quite an aggressive start to the season, just being straight thrown in there, like this is the first race and it's a super tough slope.

"The elevation is always a bit of a shock to the system, having trained the whole summer in New Zealand, which is quite low elevation, and then coming to Sölden and you're at like 3000 metres at the top, it's a bit of an adjustment."

After Sölden, Robinson will resume her attempt to take her speed skiing to the next level after she made strides in the discipline last season, equaling her career-best with a fourth-place finish in Kvitfjell.

"Going forward, the next step for me, a big step that I want to take, is to be a bit more of a real contender in Super G. GS is still a priority for me, but I'm really hoping that I put in a bit of work and I want to be a bit more of a contender, especially in Super G."

While Super G improvements are one of Robinson's goals for this season, in the end it's the hardware – globes and medals – that's she's really striving for.

"A big goal of mine last year was being in contention for the (Giant Slalom) globe, and that's going to be the same goal for this year," she said.

"And then obviously it (a goal) was also a medal at world championships last year. And then obviously there's the Olympics this year, so I think it's probably going to be quite similar."

Bassino suffers leg injury in training

While Robinson and Shiffrin prepare to tackle the new season, former Giant Slalom crystal globe winner Marta Bassino (ITA/Head) won't be at the start gate on Saturday after suffering an injury during training in Italy on Wednesday.

Bassino, the 2020/21 Giant Slalom title winner, suffered a lateral fracture of the tibial plateau in her left leg after slipping on course in Val Senales.

"Marta is currently undergoing a further CT scan to better assess the extent of the injury," the Italian Winter Sports Federation (FISI) said in a press release.