Mikaela Shiffrin

[Muleski]

Odd. I posted last night, saying that “I was hearing” while actually knowing she was out, having known it for over a day, and knowing who was getting the start for the USST. Just expected to see it somewhere in the USA, probably a USST release that hit social media and the mainstream press. That was my guess. Nope. I don’t need to be the “newsbreaker...”

 

[Primoz]

Already public over there? I guess it is, but still. No St. Moritz speed weekend for Shiffrin, and looks like it's going to be pure SL/GS for a while, so Courchevel next week is first stop.

 

[Muleski]

Yes, news of no St. Moritz SG’s was released and is starting to make it’s way through the USA press. Being framed up as a lack of speed training, which is absolutely the case. Sounds like no speed for her this season. As far as the rest, we’ll see. Seems like one day at a time kind of thing. Mentioning her “next possible starts”.

Sports Illustrated published a pretty interesting article a fee days ago. Like any article, I take it with a grain of salt, BUT it really points out that there is a lot going on, and questions how this season and her future
are impacted.

Worth a read, IMO.

Redirect Notice

I’m not too impressed with how the USST, and her agent are handling their responsibility with this. Don’t need this cloak and dagger on whether she’s starting and when. Just my thinking. Lots of needless chatter, IMO.

 

[Rudi Riet]

I’m not too impressed with how the USST, and her agent are handling their responsibility with this. Don’t need this cloak and dagger on whether she’s starting and when. Just my thinking. Lots of needless chatter, IMO.

It seems that the USST is a bit rudderless without their main marketing focus making a ton of starts. They had a narrative all planned out and... well, life is happening for Shiffrin and it's not sticking to the playbook.

Meanwhile, Moltzan gets a podium at Lech and... very little PR from the USST marketing machine. Yes, the usual outlet posted a story but the pivot to covering these new charges is not happening with any speed. Granted, the season is young and things can change - let's hope they do.

Speaking of "the usual outlet," they posted a lovely article in mid-November about mentorship within the USST. Penned by Edie Thys Morgan, it shows how when there's a good system of mentorship within the USST (or really any team) it lifts up the entire team.

Mentors matter

In life, we often get our breaks by being in the right place at the right time. We also get them by being with the right people. These are people who can set the stage by making us feel comfortable and worthy of their attention, and then make the effort to share their knowledge. We […]

skiracing.com

Given Shiffrin's team runs in completely independent circles from the rest of the women's tech team, it seems the USST might be passing up a prime opportunity to have Mikaela pay it forward. Granted, this would mess with The System™, but right now that might reinvigorate her season. Change is scary, especially when a tightly knit support group has been part-and-parcel of an outstanding career to this point. But it could pay off for the whole team, not just a team of one.

Just my $0.02, but... it could be amazing.

 

[James]

Already public over there? I guess it is, but still. No St. Moritz speed weekend for Shiffrin, and looks like it's going to be pure SL/GS for a while, so Courchevel next week is first stop.

Just attempting to watch wcup skiing over here this year is difficult. I’ve seen none other than on youtube after the fact. Coverage was poor last year, this year it’s abysmal.

If the USST thinks the US public is on pins and needles breathlessly waiting a communiqué, they are deluded. Frankly, few care outside the pretty small subgroup who follow ski racing. Especially this year where we’re probably going to have 3k dying a day in two weeks.
Sad for a great athlete, but that’s it in non Olympic years. Even in that group, I sense this year is somewhat already being written off, and we’re preparing for it to be cancelled anyway. What do we have, a gs, a slalom, and a couple parallels?

 

[Muleski]

Agree, @James, watching the few events has been very problematic. Horrible. The USST's marketing, or PR/Media is pretty weak. I've had more than a few people quite involved complain and suggest that they need to make a personnel change, and upgrade. Not being well handled in the times. With respect to MS, I believe that some of the problem is because she essentially IS or has been THE USST. And the main press/media officer promotes that she and MS are friends. I believe that creates a significant filter in terms of what is truly going on.
If she is struggling and contemplating taking the season off, or perhaps trying to be ready for the FIS World Champs, that's fine. Many will understand.

However as @Rudi Riet mentions, there is some very encouraging stuff going on, at least with the women. Paula Moltzan is worth writing and reading about. Hard work in the off season, and nice results. Nina O'Brien is skiiing faster. The younger women are showing some encouraging stuff: Katie H, AJ and Allie Resnick. But virtually no press, other than in the normal channel. Or on Instagram at times.

One of the things that found most interesting about the PGS was the reaction of all of the women, the celebrations, etc. I had posted before that people closer to this than me have stated that this is a tight team group, very supportive of each other. MS is NOT part of it. She is a team of one, and that became absolute FACT when her mother started making demands of Tiger Shaw in the late spring and early summer of 2016. She demanded that the team working with MS only work with her, and her coach, who was the head W's tech coach and enjoyed working with the 3-4 others, quit. The other girls BTW were eventually dropped form the USST. I won't get into names, but they have persevered outside of the team. And one is back on the team.

The fact is that the USST press has tried hard to present MS as some great team player, while the actual team does not see it that way, does not miss her, and seem to be skiing just fine without her being there along with all of the resources and attention that support her. Let alone that her mother essentially demanded that some of them, and their friends no longer train with MS some years ago.

When you have a team of one, the best in the world, and things get derailed, even through a very understandable personal and family tragedy, picking up the pieces is hard. I'm not sure that the USST's various departments are on top of it.

We'll see. Hope things work out.

 

[4ster]

The fact is that the USST press has tried hard to present MS as some great team player, while the actual team does not see it that way, does not miss her, and seem to be skiing just fine without her being there along with all of the resources and attention that support her.

I thought this photo was somewhat representative of the team concept ...


Don’t want to stray far from the Shiffrin theme in this thread but Nina O’Brien is an incredible skier! Hope things come together for her on race day soon.

 

[Dakine]

The US has exactly one publicity worthy skier.
Like Hamilton or LeBron, you get publicity by winning.
When other USST members can put up the numbers, they will get their fair share.
Until then, the best we have deserves all the support possible.

 

[Rudi Riet]

The US has exactly one publicity worthy skier.
Like Hamilton or LeBron, you get publicity by winning.
When other USST members can put up the numbers, they will get their fair share.
Until then, the best we have deserves all the support possible.

From a PR standpoint this is definitely the attitude that USST and its media arm (including NBC Universal) is banking on.

(Donning my personal critics' hat here...)

But it's a bit of "robbing Peter to pay Paul" - or in this case "robbing Paula to pay Team Mikaela." The cost of funding an effective team of one (Team Mikaela) is an incredible burden on a national team organization, especially when there are other athletes who are fast and capable of podiums and winning. And now that MS is likely only racing tech events, there's no practical reason to have her on a different training program than Moltzan, O'Brien, Lapanja, Hensien, et al - none whatsoever.

But there are a lot of other mechanisms at work here. Team Mikaela's directors expect her to have a private staff: coaches, equipment techs, physios, cooks, etc. It's a small army to coach a single athlete. Meanwhile, the rest of the women's tech group may require a few more people (e.g. additional equipment techs, maybe another physio) and additional airfare but otherwise it's a similar monetary outlay for staffing to cover more athletes. And some of these athletes are paying their own way due to the (to my mind) mismanaged funding channels of the USST.

But the team is now leaning on Shiffrin as its PR focus. She's a once-in-a-generation phenom with a compelling story that's now even more compelling in terms of the human interest aspect. The USST is leaning on this, and it's an easier sell for NBC Universal (everybody loves a human interest angle). But they're mismanaging the messaging. They need to be clear about MS' race schedule: where she's going to race, when, and how much media access she will have during this time. Jeff Shiffrin's death has definitely made Team Mikaela circle the wagons even tighter, including the PR. And this is happening at the expense of worthy athletes like Moltzan.

My guess: Paula Moltzan will win almost as many World Cup points at Mikaela this year, yet will receive less than 10 percent of the publicity. This is just a hunch, but if Paula keeps skiing as well as she has it will be a great season for her with the potential for a win. That's nothing to sneeze at, though the USST is trying their best to do just that.

Again, my $0.02 - YMMV.

 

[Dakine]

I agree with everything you say.
But it is a reality TV world.
"Nobody ever went broke by underestimating the taste of the American public." HL Mencken

 

[Primoz]

While I, for several reason (including founding which on the end is always minus for rest of the team) really don't like one man teams, I'm sure we should all agree that Dakine is actually right. Yeah Moltzan was second now in PGS. But let's face it, that's her only result until now, and I honestly don't count there's gonna be much change after this. Parallel races are so specific that you can't draw any conclusions out of it, and it's single race in season anyway (unless I'm wrong and there's maybe another one). So considering Moltzan as anything but mediocre middle of the field starter is slightly pretentious. But it's pretty common I would say for US fans doing this. In best years of Vonn, there was one race a season, mostly LL, where 3 other American downhillers managed to get to top 5 or something, and all of a sudden it was powerful US team, who will rule the world, but bad Lindsey takes all the money and they need to rule the world with almost no funding. After that single LL race comes rest of season, and noone managed to get better then 20 or 25. And I have feeling it's happening exactly same thing now. Moltzan is in World cup for few years now, and when you look at her WC results, average result is either DNF or DNQ1 (https://www.fis-ski.com/DB/general/...t=&place=&disciplinecode=&position=&limit=100), so based on one single race, and even PGS, it's hard to really say Shiffrin is robbing her of money or founding, or even publicity.
PS: As for Moltzan winning as many points as Shiffrin... honestly I don't think it's gonna happen. Currently, Moltzan has 114 points after 4 races (80 of them were PGS), and Shiffrin 125 with only 2 races. Regardless how little Shiffrin will be skiing, I think it's pretty safe bet, she will have more points then all other USST skiers together, probably all other men AND women USST skiers together.

 

[skix]

In every sport exponentially more publicity is earned by athletes who are consistent champions, let alone arguably among the greatest of all time in their sport. I don't find it odd at all that Shiffrin eats up dollars and publicity. She's an athletic phenomenon and is also by most accounts more than just a decent human being. She's earned everything she is getting.

Whether she should be doing more to sweep fellow athletes along on her coattails is a fair question I guess but this isn't basketball where unselfish play wins games. Out there on the course she is alone. Sure, it's also true it takes a team to get any skier to the podium but unlike basketball you don't actually need other players as part of your team. Point being I guess is I can't see second-guessing what it took to create the magnitude of success that is the career of Mikaela Shiffrin.

 

[ski otter 2]

In every sport exponentially more publicity is earned by athletes who are consistent champions, let alone arguably among the greatest of all time in their sport. I don't find it odd at all that Shiffrin eats up dollars and publicity. She's an athletic phenomenon and is also by most accounts more than just a decent human being. She's earned everything she is getting.

Whether she should be doing more to sweep fellow athletes along on her coattails is a fair question I guess but this isn't basketball where unselfish play wins games. Out there on the course she is alone. Sure, it's also true it takes a team to get any skier to the podium but unlike basketball you don't actually need other players as part of your team. Point being I guess is I can't see second-guessing what it took to create the magnitude of success that is the career of Mikaela Shiffrin.

Well said. In addition, she has popularized being a ski racer just by how she's done and the way she acts, really admirable. There have to be a lot of young racers, both women and men, who have been inspired to race or race better by her example. And this will probably be so for years to come.

 

[ScotsSkier]

With regard to funding, the point is being missed in many respects. MS has sufficient resources and sponsorship to fund her own team and staffing. She has benefited for several years from USST funding both as seed money at the start and increasingly swallowing more of the budget as she became more successful. IMHO she is now at the point where she should be self -sufficient - this is her career after all and she is self-employed/ runs her own business (after all the USST can not just tell her that she must do particular events! - she makes her own decisions - and does not even wear the standard team uniform!!). So now is the time to cut the team funding and reinvest it as seed capital in new talent that has not yet attained self-financing.

Why would we continue to put the majority of funding still into MS to just effectively pad her back balance? Her position is not much different from a Pro tennis player or pro golfer who pay their own way and their own teams without National body funding.

And of course not unique to MS, the same could be said of Ted in the current set-up.

I strongly suspect that many of us who pay for much of this through our USSS license fees and other support/donations we provide would prefer to see more of the funding diverted to rising talent...

Just saying....

 

[Rudi Riet]

Why would we continue to put the majority of funding still into MS to just effectively pad her back balance? Her position is not much different from a Pro tennis player or pro golfer who pay their own way and their own teams without National body funding.

I strongly suspect that many of us who pay for much of this through our USSS license fees and other support/donations we provide would prefer to see more of the funding diverted to rising talent...

Hear hear!

Bode Miller self-funded his career for a number of years (Team America), as did Vonn within the USST system (her sponsors footed the bill). I'm guessing Mancuso was in the same boat, not lacking sponsors and a good PR machine. This opened up USST funds for other athletes to have the resources they needed to take that next step. In many respects, these big names freeing up funds allowed for the rise of Shiffrin and the new "Project 26" focus, River Radamus.

USST and USSS are top-heavy organizations - i.e. most of the money they raise goes to the "toppermost of the poppermost." This is painfully evident to those who run smaller programs in the USSS system: there isn't a big pool of resources, there is a lot asked for out of pocket to gain access to myriad tools, certifications, and opportunities. As a person who is a program director and coach at a small program, I see this first hand.

So yes, I'm critical of the allocation and distribution of my USSS license fees. Yes, USSS has a higher overhead than, say, ÖSV in Austria. There's more travel and the related infrastructure involved for a non-European team. It's expensive. And there are some highly paid coaches and administrators in both USSS and USST, more so since the two organizations merged in the early 1990s. While there is a lot of sponsorship money and some high rollers who pour money into the organization, it isn't distributed very equitably.

Ski racing in the United States is highly political, just like any sport. And because it's a comparatively small sporting community, none of us involved are more than 2 or 3 degrees of separation from folks who are highly influential. It's why there's a hesitation to call out bad actors for fear of retribution. So many players in smaller markets choose to stay more silent and "play nice" to try not to cut off access to things like invitational camps, workshops, and the like.

Back to MS and how things aren't working: Team Shiffrin rides the USST budget to a hefty total every year with her "team-of-one" setup. Her entourage is still heavily funded by USSS and USST money. This pool of money isn't bottomless, so any money taken by MS (and USST will not say no to Team Mikaela - she's their marketing goldmine right now) is money that isn't available to other athletes and coaches. Team Shiffrin still gets a hefty amount of funding from her non-USST sponsors, such as Red Bull, Barilla, and Atomic, but these are "minority owners" in her team's operation.

@ScotsSkier's analogy to pro tennis is spot-on with regard to how things should be in this system. Bode's Team America operation was completely self-contained. He even paid for the USST uniform out of Team America's budget - yes, he bought the uniform. And even after returning to the USST system he still mostly paid his own way. Vonn's training setup was similar: her sponsors footed the majority of the bill. Thus why LV flew on the Red Bull jet and used Red Bull's training facility outside of Salzburg. She knew this would free up funds for the other women on the USST roster, and while LV had a dedicated entourage, she also trained with her teammates on a semi-regular basis. She was a mentor to them.

Team Shiffrin has a different setup and relationship with USST than did Miller and Vonn, and to my eyes it's to the detriment of all involved. It's impressive that the rest of the USST's women's tech team does as well as they do given they seldom ever train with Mikaela. They don't have that top-ranked rabbit to chase on a day-to-day basis - they only really get to compare themselves to her on race day. They have to share resources and learn as a group. This has its benefits and drawbacks.

Right now, MS is in a very unenviable position. She's recovering from family tragedy in a way that's very isolating. The life of a ski racer - especially one from North America - is very lonesome. It's similar to pandemic living: you're in a small bubble for most of the year. And for someone like MS who rose to the World Cup ranks so young, there aren't many peers around. Her mother has been omnipresent save for a couple short stretches last season. Her coach has been the same person for years. Her social life is not one of a typical young adult. And now when she needs coping mechanisms she's isolated from peers who could help her with healing.

It's sad to see. I worry that she's racing out of habit, out of a sense of obligation to someone other than herself. And it peeves me that this pursuit of ski racing is diverting funds from other USST athletes who are trying to make their way up the ranks. It won't be too long before it's called out for what it is by someone higher up the food chain - or someone with a platform that has more influence from a PR standpoint. While there's time to fix this and show an honest effort to make the team more of a team, the halo period of "she's in mourning and needs the resources to find her way" won't be around too much longer.

And @Primoz, I get your argument about Moltzan's lack of consistent results to this point. She's had to race outside of the USST's full support structure for years. She also realized that she needed to raise her fitness game to really get fast. She showed good speed in GS at Sölden, her first truly awesome GS result, and then backed that up by getting 2nd at Lech-Zurs. Parallel may not be the same as GS or SL, but it's a slugfest and requires a lot of stamina to excel. The proof of her improved fitness was that 2nd place: she's moved up a level, at least in terms of GS. And yes, the season is young but right now Moltzan is headed in the right direction and likely bringing some of her teammates up with her. It could be reminiscent of the Italian women's team, where their training situation every day is similar to a top-level race. We shall see. Perhaps I'm more optimistic than most.

 

[Dakine]

The USST is down to one person who can legitimately compete for a podium.
What is going to happen to funding when there are none.
I expect the USST has gotten a decent return on its investment in Mikela, she is a star.
Americans love stars who are there because of their exceptional ability.
Without star power the USST may just as well fold its tent and go away.
That's the marketing side of this thing.

 

[Pete in Idaho]

Thanks again guys for the input . It is appreciated.

 

[Mark1975]

The USST is down to one person who can legitimately compete for a podium.
What is going to happen to funding when there are none.
I expect the USST has gotten a decent return on its investment in Mikela, she is a star.
Americans love stars who are there because of their exceptional ability.
Without star power the USST may just as well fold its tent and go away.
That's the marketing side of this thing.

The problem is much deeper than that. USSS Alpine is a mess right now, from the smallest weekend programs up into the academies. I am L3 PSIA, and a L300 USSA coach. I got my L3 PSIA about 20 years ago, but pretty much have been coaching for the last 15 years. Everything from weekend programs up to two academies in New England. I took last year off because of a leg injury, and I am sitting this race season out, if we really have one, due to Covid. I am afraid there will not be much to go back to in the future.

Don't even know where to start:

USSS/USST is messed up at the top. I have no idea how they think what they are doing is going to work in the long run.

Parents, even those within the 1% to 2% income range are now balking about the cost of FIS level racing. Many are sending their kids to academies to get a private HS education, and allowing their kids to do something they like in the winter. Most just want their kids to get an upper hand in getting into a "good" college. Many have told me they won't even be disappointed if their kids don't even race at the club level in college. Getting on to the "messed up" USST is not even on their radar now.

The use of SkillsQuest has paid zero dividends at the FIS level, and may be actually hindering U.S. skiers at the FIS Level compared to the junior European racers.

The new Coaches Education changes is paying zero dividends, and is actually discouraging individuals from going into coaching.

I could go on and on why we have no one who has even the basic skiing skills of Hirscher, but it falls on deaf ears at Park City. For them, it is all about the marketing and money. Speak against their so called "plan" and your program, even at the academy level, will be shunned.

Team Shiffrin is not the problem, it is a symptom of a much larger problem in USSS/USST.

 

[ScotsSkier]

@Rudi Riet . totally agree. Thanks for pointing out that USSS and USST merged at some point in the past. I am very strongly of the belief that it is time to revisit the structure. I suspect a lot of non-racers do not understand that USST is only one part fo USSS (United States Ski and Snowboard) Currently we have a CEO of USSS who seems to apply most of his time and efforts to USST rather than focusing on running USSS for the benefit of its license paying members. I strongly believe that a necessary first step - along with replacing the CEO - is to introduce some separation and focus. Along with a new CEO we should appoint an executive director for the USST with clear objectives and their own budget to operate the team. This Director should report to the USSS CEO and his contract extension based upon success of the team. Then the USSS can focus on what is required for its membership which should be its primary role. This would get rid of the current co-mingling of funds (and inordinate diversion to "teams of one") . It would also allow a proper focus on what staffing is REALLY required! Currently with the blurred lines we end up with a lot of expensive staff without a clear function. Meanwhile the membership keeps paying for them. (And license costs are not insignificant, my coaches license was >$200 this year, a basic Masters license is $135) .

None of this is rocket science or radical, it is simply applying proper focus and accountability for the different functions of the organization. And for those who argue that we must keep pouring scarce resources into MS because that is what draws sponsorship - what happens in a season like this where she decides that she is not going to do many events??? Yet the allocated budget is not reduced.... And also dont underestimate how much of the funding comes from the membership, not just sponsors.

As always, just MHO...

and just saw @Mark1975 posting. Totally agree. Time for a complete revamp of USS and top level changes.

 

[Primoz]

Why would we continue to put the majority of funding still into MS to just effectively pad her back balance? Her position is not much different from a Pro tennis player or pro golfer who pay their own way and their own teams without National body funding.

Because in reality things are not even close to let's say pro tennis player Federer has his own sponsors and doesn't have any obligations to Swiss tennis federation and promoting Swiss tennis federation sponsors. On the other side, Shiffrin, even if color of her jacket is different, is displaying only USST sponsors, except for helmet sponsor. Helmet, with those 50cm2 space (and single sponsor on it) is the only place, where she can market her own sponsors. So it's not really same as for example for Federer, who has his own right to have only his own sponsors on his clothes. Shiffrin is actually marketing USST sponsors not her own. And let's face it, most of USST sponsors are there because of Shiffrin (or Bode, Ted, Lindsey before) not because of let's say Lila Lapanja, so in my mind, it's fair she is financed out of USST budget. Portion of this budget, that goes to such athletes (we had same with (especially) Maze, Stuhec, now Hrovat, so I actually know what it's all about) is different story, and that's reason, why I don't like one man bands.