U.S. alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin could cement G.O.A.T status at Winter Olympics

• Shiffrin's last few years have been a rollercoaster off the slopes. She lost her dad in 2020 to an accident, suffered a back injury last October and got COVID six weeks ago.
• One thing that's helped Shiffrin through the tough times is her new relationship with Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the gold medal favorite in men's downhill and super-G.

What she's saying: “Unfortunately, there’s just not really a whole lot of time for that. I don’t really expect to feel ready to race. At this point, I never actually feel ready. You just race, I guess,” Shiffrin said in an interview about how she is dealing with preparing for the Olympics despite recently getting COVID.

The event: Shiffrin hopes to compete in all five individual events in her third Olympics: downhill (speed), super-G (speed), slalom (technical), giant slalom (technical) and combined (one downhill and one slalom run).

• Downhill could be particularly challenging this year considering athletes had never skied the course until training sessions began on Thursday — a rarity for Olympic races.
• Her biggest competition is 26-year-old Petra Vlhová of Slovakia, who won the overall World Cup title last year and has won nearly twice as many slalom events as Shiffrin in the past three seasons.