Pontus Lundahl/TT NEWS AGENCY, via Associated Press
It is not true that Mikaela Shiffrin has won every ski race she has entered this winter. It just seems that way.
Shiffrin has won so often, in fact, that when she skips a race, or two, it spawns a minor contretemps.
In Sweden last week, Shiffrin won her fourth gold medal at the world ski championships with a breakthrough victory in the super-G. But she also bypassed another event, the Alpine combined, where she would have been the favorite.
Afterward, two of skiing’s superstars, Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller, both of whom Shiffrin idolized as a child, questioned her decision not to race.