Shiffrin smiles. She does not deny this is a topic that has come up more than once between herself and Kilde. As she admitted in an interview with CNN last week: “The risk of crashing and having not just career- or season-ending injuries, but actually life-altering injuries… that is a very big weight to carry around. Especially when you’ve experienced it first-hand, I guess the perspective shifts a little bit. I’m not going to deny that. It’s a very real thing for sure.”
Ultimately, though, she says it boils down to the fact that she loves skiing. And she is prepared to accept the risks inherent in practising what she loves.
“It’s weighing the risk versus reward, I guess,” she adds. “I do feel like I’m responsible. I’ve always been very aware of the risks. I will tend to pull out of speed races [downhill and super-G] if I feel there’s a skill set that I don’t have to do that race. Or if there are races where I feel like the conditions are questionable, or the visibility is more questionable than I’m willing to handle.
“I try to be honest about that. And my coaches, my team around me, my mom as well – she’s somebody I lean on to help guide me in these decisions. And she did ask me the same question. You know, ‘How do you feel about going into these races and doing downhill after seeing Aleks’s crash?’ I feel OK.”
‘Aleks’ leg was like a war image… TV wouldn’t show it’
Shiffrin sits back in her chair in her chalet in Cortina d’Ampezzo – we are speaking by Zoom – and continues. She does not deny that Kilde’s crash was horrific. In fact, she says, she wishes he had been even more open about the extent of his injuries – the Norwegian suffered a nasty laceration to his calf as well as a dislocated shoulder – because then there would be more appreciation for the risks elite skiers take.
“Honestly, his leg was like a war image,” she says. “Laceration doesn’t do it justice. TV wouldn’t share it because it was too graphic. But I think maybe there’s a way to share it that people can choose whether they want to see it or not. Because then people would see just how strong he actually is, if they knew a little bit more of the severity of the accident and the procedures that he’s gone through and sort of the recovery time involved… It was bad. It is bad. But he’s very positive. He’s got that Viking spirit.”
