Shiffrin Wins USOC Athlete Honor

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO (Feb. 7) - One year before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games open, U.S. Ski Team sensation and Sochi hopeful Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) was named the January Athlete of the Month by the U.S. Olympic Committee for two stunning Audi FIS Alpine World Cup victories. Shiffrin thrilled an overflowing Croatian crowd with a 1.19 second slalom victory to take the prestigious Snow Queen Trophy to open the month in Zagreb, Croatia. The wire-to-wire win rewrote history as the 17-year-old became the first American to win two world cup races in a single season before the age of 18. She also became the youngest woman to win two world cup slalom races in a single season since 1977. In her next slalom event two weeks later, Shiffrin triumphed again with a stunning come-from-behind win in Flachau, Austria. She capped the month with a third-place finish to increase her lead in the world cup slalom standings before heading to the 42nd FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Schladming.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, CO) was named January Athlete of the Month by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
• Shiffrin is currently training for the 42nd FIS Alpine Ski World Championships where she's expected to start slalom and giant slalom.
• The 17-year-old won two Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom races in January and captured a third place finish in the Moscow City Event.
• A voting panel selected Shiffrin from a pool of nominees submitted by National Governing Bodies across the spectrum of summer and winter Olympic sports with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for a percentage of the total vote.
• Shiffrin's World Championship races will be broadcast on Universal Sports.

QUOTES
Mikaela Shiffrin
It's really exciting to be nominated for this award and humbiing to win. It proves to myself that I actually am competing on a global scale. It's not my little races back in New Hampshire anymore.

This year has been really cool, not just becuase of my skiing, but because my skiing has allowed me to meet and interact with so many great athletes. I'm Tweeting with freestyle athletes and snowboarders and it's cool to know that athletes from other sports are cheering for me, just as much as I'm cheering for them. I guess that's what makes Olympic sports so special. It's the pinnacle of sport and it's the one place where we're all one team.

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