Last Tuesday afternoon in the Swiss resort village of Zinal, 5,500 feet above sea level in the Alps and surrounded by peaks more than twice that high, U.S. alpine ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin began planning for Olympic Games that are still a year away. Her support team of five—two coaches from the U.S. Ski team, a trainer, a ski technician and, most importantly, her mother/assistant coach Eileen—gathered and began organizing the days, weeks and months between now and the opening ceremony on Feb. 9, 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Minutes after that meeting ended, Shiffrin was both emboldened and mildly overwhelmed.
As she closes in on first overall World Cup title, Mikaela Shiffrin also readies for Olympic glory
