Mikaela Shiffrin is changing her approach to the 2026-27 World Cup season, planning to race fewer slaloms while putting more focus on Giant Slalom and Super-G. The 31-year-old American announced the change on Tuesday, October 6, on her podcast What’s the Point social media channels, calling the upcoming winter a “season of exploration.”
Shiffrin has been one of the few all-rounders on the World Cup circuit for many years. In the 16 years of her career, she has been one of the very few athletes to have podiumed in all Alpine disciplines: 99 slalom podiums, 44 Giant Slalom podiums, 10 Super-G podiums, and seven downhill podiums. While most ski racers dream of winning just one race, Shiffrin has won 73 times in slalom, 22 times in Giant Slalom, five times in Super-G and four times in downhill races. Some skiers will compete across all disciplines but her ability to be a podium contender across all four disciplines has set Shiffrin apart for more than a decade.
In the last two seasons Shiffrin focused more on the tech disciplines, slalom and Giant Slalom, but for the upcoming season, Shiffrin’s approach is shifting. “Fewer slalom races,” the legendary ski racer announced. But for those wondering if she is less driven, she delivers the answer before the question can be asked. “I’m not doing less because I care less,” Shiffrin wrote. “I’m trying something different because I still care a lot.” Rather than continuing to maximize results in her strongest event, Shiffrin wants to find out how much more she can get out of her Giant Slalom and Super-G skiing. “I really wonder where I can take my GS,” she said. “I want to find out.”
Fewer Slaloms, Not No Slaloms
Shiffrin stressed that she is not walking away from slalom. Her current plan is to begin her slalom season at the Stifel Killington Cup in Vermont, with the possibility of adding several other races later in the winter. She wants to maintain enough ranking points to keep her options open. That means she is expected to miss the opening slaloms at Levi, Finland, and Gurgl, Austria, two races that have been fixtures of her early-season schedule for years.
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The reduced slalom schedule will give Shiffrin additional time at home and more opportunities to build dedicated training blocks in Giant Slalom and Super-G. She also sees the change as an opportunity to recover differently and take better care of her body. “It’s going to feel really weird not going to Levi or Gurgl,” she said. “But for the first time in a long time, I may get a proper touch point at home in the early season.”
- Related: Mikaela Shiffrin Claims 102nd Career Victory and 9th Reindeer at World Cup in Levi, Finland
Slalom Hasn’t Become “Easy”
Shiffrin was particularly clear that her decision should not be interpreted as a sign that she has lost interest in slalom or believes the discipline has become easier. Nothing could be further from the truth, she said. The physical demands, coordination, equipment preparation and constant repetition required to remain competitive all make slalom exceptionally demanding. “Nothing about slalom is easy,” Shiffrin wrote.
She rejected the idea that she could simply turn up to World Cup slaloms without training and continue winning.“Racing slalom underprepared isn’t fun or joyful,” she said, comparing it to “jumping into a giant blender and trying to avoid the blades.” That is part of why she does not want to race slalom simply for the sake of maintaining her enormous winning record. Her recent slalom form has been among the best of her career.
Last Season Showed She Still Has More to Explore
It is a significant shift in strategy for Shiffrin, who in the 2025-26 season had a marked focus on the tech disciplines. “No downhill,” Shiffrin stated ahead of last season at the Atomic Media Day. Back then, she added that she loved Super-G and was hoping to do a race early in the season, which she did in December 2025 in St. Moritz, Switzerland, but acknowledged she would focus on tech disciplines. She went on to win eight slalom races and one Giant Slalom race in the 2025-26 season, while her Super-G campaign was less successful, with a DNF at St. Moritz followed by 23rd place in Val di Fassa, Italy, and 22nd in Lillehammer, Norway.
For the 2026-27 season, her stated love for Super-G will take center stage as she declares that she wants to devote more time to Giant Slalom and Super-G rather than simply continuing down the most predictable path. “Ironically, the more predictable choice might be to race only slalom,” Shiffrin said. “But staying only where I’ve been most successful, rather than taking a risk and following my curiosity into something less known, feels like a faster path toward retirement.”
That may be the most interesting part of her announcement. There is no mention of retirement, quite the opposite. Shiffrin is stoking her passion for skiing by shifting her focus to her weaker disciplines. The 31-year-old has often stated that she is not driven by numbers and has repeatedly spoken about how much she enjoys the process of training and improving. So for the 2026-27 season, the American athlete is planning to find out what she is still capable of doing.
A Different Way to Extend Her Career
That curiosity is what Shiffrin admits continues to drive her. “What lights my fire isn’t just being good or winning,” Shiffrin said. “It’s actually the uncertainty in wondering how much I can still improve.” That uncertainty is now taking her away from the discipline where she has achieved the most and toward the disciplines where there is still more to discover.
The 2026-27 World Cup season begins with Giant Slalom in Sölden, Austria, on October 24, giving Shiffrin an immediate opportunity to start that exploration. She does not know exactly where the experiment will lead. And that, she says, is the point. “I’m not done with slalom, and I’m not stepping back,” Shiffrin said. “I’m changing the question.”
After openly speaking about her struggles with PTSD following her Giant Slalom crash in Killington, Shiffrin’s new plan shows that she is moving past her mental block. She is now ready to challenge herself rather than simply staying inside her comfort zone. We are excited to see how her shift in focus plays out.
With Shiffrin’s shift in focus to Giant Slalom and Super-G, her greatest slalom rival Petra Vlhova returning to the World Cup scene, and all-rounder Emma Aicher close on Shiffrin’s heels, the 2026-27 season is shaping up to bring more excitement across disciplines. With just two-and-a-half weeks to go until the season opener in Sölden, Austria, we can hardly wait to see what the 2026-27 World Cup season brings.