Lindsey Vonn 'disappointed' with how Mikaela Shiffrin handled decision to race with another teammate

Lindsey Vonn ‘disappointed’ with how Mikaela Shiffrin handled decision to race with another teammate

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United States’ Lindsey Vonn, right, chats with United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin after women’s downhill training at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Jeongseon, South Korea, Feb. 20, 2018. (AP Photo/Cristophe Ena, File)

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United States’ Lindsey Vonn gets ready to start an alpine ski, women’s World Championship downhill training, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

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United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin ahead of a women’s World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

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United States’ Lindsey Vonn gets ready to start an alpine ski, women’s World Championship downhill training, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

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United States’ Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course during a women’s World Cup slalom, in Courchevel, France, Thursday Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

By ANDREW DAMPF

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) — They are the two best skiers in U.S. history. Actually in women’s skiing overall.

So it should come as no surprise that having Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin on the same team at times creates friction.

It happened years ago when Vonn was finishing up her career and Shiffrin was still in the earlier stages of hers. And now it’s happening again with Vonn having returned to racing at the age of 40 after nearly six years of retirement.

But who knew that it would be the all-new event of team combined to bring the friction to the surface.

Vonn said Monday that she was “disappointed” with how Shiffrin handled her decision to race in the combined at the skiing world championships with downhill world champion Breezy Johnson instead of pairing with her in a skiing “dream team.”

Vonn had campaigned to race with Shiffrin on an American team that would have united the two most successful skiers in World Cup history. Never mind that neither skier is technically even allowed to select who they pair with — that’s something that the U.S. team’s coaching staff decides based on “season-best results” in both downhill and slalom.

But Shiffrin then announced that she wasn’t going to race in the team combined because she was behind in her training for giant slalom following her crash in Killington, Vermont, in November.

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United States' Lindsey Vonn speeds down the course during a women's downhill training, at the Alpine Ski World Championships, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Gabriele Facciotti)

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On Monday, Shiffrin changed her plans. Saying that she was struggling to overcome her fears following her November crash, she decided to withdraw from defending her giant slalom title and race the combined instead, pairing with Johnson. Johnson will race the downhill and Shiffrin the slalom.

Speeds are not as high in slalom as they are in giant slalom so it’s a less dangerous event.

“I’m excited for Breezy and Mikaela to team up together and I believe they are a great pair. However, I am disappointed in the way it was handled,” Vonn said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

Vonn said she reached out to Shiffrin and that Shiffrin agreed it would be great to race together. But then Vonn was told that Shiffrin wasn’t entering the combined. Vonn only learned of Shiffrin’s final decision to race it via Instagram.

“Despite the lack of communication I am a team player and am looking forward to be partnered with AJ Hurt, who is an amazing young skier,” Vonn added.

Shiffrin’s spokeswoman declined to comment on the situation.

New event entails 1 racer competing in downhill and another in slalom

The combined event entails one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom run, with their two times added up to determine the final results. Each nation can enter up to four pairings.

Since Johnson won the world title in the downhill and Shiffrin has two World Cup wins this season, they were named to Team 1.

The No. 2 team is super-G bronze medalist Lauren Macuga with Paula Moltzan. Vonn and Hurt are the No. 3 team and the No. 4 team is Jacqueline Wiles with Katie Hensien.

Shiffrin and Vonn are the winningest female racers in World Cup history with 99 victories for Shiffrin and 82 for Vonn. Vonn is the all-time leader in World Cup downhill victories with 43 and Shiffrin holds the mark in slalom with 62 — both records among men and women.

“I think it would be probably one of the coolest things in ski racing to have 181 World Cup victories on one team,” Vonn said last week.

While the 24-year-old Hurt has never won a World Cup race, she has finished on the podium twice with two third-places — once in slalom and once in giant slalom, both last season.

Vonn reacts with surprise on social media, then deletes a posting

Before issuing her clarifying statement, Vonn appeared upset that Shiffrin wasn’t racing with her.

“Why am I not surprised?” Vonn wrote on the social media platform X with a shrug emoji after seeing Shiffrin’s announcement on Instagram.

Vonn then deleted that message and added a new post on X that said: “Always been a team player and I support my team no matter what. I’m not surprised by the decisions made but at least now it’s clear that it’s not my decision. I have always been supportive and respectful and that will never change,” Vonn said, concluding with a Go USA flag emoji.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing