Petra Vlhova also has big plans for the Olympics

Mikaela Shiffrin isn’t the only Alpine skier who could enter all five individual events at the Beijing Olympics and come away with multiple medals.

Petra Vlhova, the tall Slovakian who is Shiffrin’s biggest rival, has big plans of her own for the Winter Games.

“We go there for medals,” Mauro Pini, Vlhova’s new personal coach, said in a recent interview.

Vlhova already won the overall World Cup title last season – considered by many the greatest prize in skiing – and has collected six medals from world championships. Now, she’s aiming for her first medal in her third Olympics.

“This is perfect,” Pini said. “The first time you go (to an Olympics) you are lost, the second you learn and the third you are ready to perform.”

Vlhova is a medal contender in at least three events. She already secured this season’s World Cup slalom title by winning five of seven races – with Shiffrin, who was slowed midseason by the coronavirus, winning the other two.

Vlhova is also a former world champion in giant slalom and claimed silver in combined at the last two world championships.

While Pini said they “will see” whether Vlhova enters the downhill, she also plans to race the super-G and could take part in the team event.

Vlhova already raced in all six Alpine events at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

It was after Pyeongchang, though, that Vlhova established herself at the top of the sport.

Securing the overall title last season was so important to Slovakia, an eastern European nation of 5.5 million, that she was flown on a government plane to late-season races in Are, Sweden, to lighten her travel load. Then she was feted at the presidential palace after winning the big crystal globe.

A first-ever Olympic medal for the country in Alpine skiing would be cause for more celebration.

“I’m sure that the whole country will (follow) Petra,” said Pini, who is Swiss. “Obviously there is something beyond her. . We feel this.

Vlhova was the only skier who started in all 31 women’s World Cup events last season. This season, she’s been racing mostly giant slalom and slalom and competed in only one speed weekend – in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, last month.

Pini said Vlhova felt “destroyed” at the end of last season and that her schedule was too demanding.

“And if you look at the overall classification, we have more points now with less races as last year,” Pini said. “This is a big, big difference.”

Pini, who formerly coached Lara Gut-Behrami and Tina Maze, was hired by Vlhova after she split with her longstanding coach, Livio Magoni, following unflattering remarks by the Italian about Vlhova.

Pini noted how by prioritizing their best events and adding more rest into the schedule, Vlhova is able to steadily improve throughout the season rather than just clinging on to the form that she began the season with. For example, Pini said Vlhova is now “more disciplined” with her upper body when she races – which makes the 5-foot-11 (1.80-meter) skier much more efficient.

“We’re trying to manage perfectly the details. Manage the time to have more time,” Pini said. “It’s important to have time to recharge – to rest and to have fun. So then there’s also time to laugh.”

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