Mikaela Shiffrin is rewriting her own playbook. The 31-year-old American, the most successful racer in World Cup history, will contest noticeably fewer slaloms in 2026-27 and shift her attention to giant slalom and super-G. She announced the change on Tuesday and has a name for the winter ahead: the "exploration season".
The headline move is on the calendar. Shiffrin will skip the traditional early-season slaloms in Levi, Finland, and Gurgl, Austria. That is no small sacrifice: she has won nine times in Levi. Her first slalom of the winter is instead planned for 29 November at her home World Cup in Killington, Vermont. She has stressed that she is not walking away from the discipline altogether.
"Trying something new"
Shiffrin explained the decision in candid terms. "We're calling it the exploration season. It's an opportunity to maybe shift focus a little bit," she said, according to NBC Sports. "I've been doing this for 16 years, and my focus has more or less remained very stable."
She admitted the change takes her out of her comfort zone. "I'm trying something new here, and it's different, and it is a little scary. It's pretty uncomfortable, and it's also very, very exciting." She also pushed back against any suggestion that her hunger is fading: "I'm not trying to do less because I care less. I'm trying to do something different because I still care SO much."
There are practical reasons, too. Racing fewer slaloms could let her spend more time at home in Colorado during an October-to-March season that is otherwise spent mostly in Europe. Austrian outlet Laola1 reports that she is also looking for more recovery time and flexibility. The backdrop includes her heavy giant slalom crash in 2024. She later revealed that she had been diagnosed with PTSD in February 2025.
110 wins, 73 of them in slalom
The numbers show how big this shift is. Of Shiffrin's 110 World Cup victories, 73 have come in slalom. Last winter was built on it as well. She won the slalom crystal globe ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast and took her second Olympic slalom gold at Milano Cortina 2026.
Alpine Skiing'Calendar is full': Aicher, Weidle-Winkelmann reject annual WorldsShe also claimed her sixth overall World Cup title, finishing 87 points clear of Germany's Emma Aicher. That margin is why the new approach matters for the overall race. Fewer slaloms mean fewer of the reliable points that have underpinned her title runs, so they will have to come from giant slalom and super-G instead.
Speed ambitions and a familiar start
The super-G is where the experiment will be most visible. Shiffrin's most recent World Cup win in the discipline dates back to December 2022, and her last downhill victory came in 2023. She has not yet set out how many speed races she plans to enter beyond the broad outline.
The season's centrepiece is the World Championships in Crans-Montana in February, and whether she lines up in the slalom there remains open. The start, at least, is fixed. Shiffrin is expected in the starting gate for the women's giant slalom in Sölden on 24 October, which will be the first real look at the new-look programme.
