Is Mikaela Shiffrin the World's Best Athlete?

By Ruslan Kudrin @ Shutterstock.com

As Barry Svrluga writes in The Washington Post, there comes a time in each great athlete’s career where they become so dominant they must be compared across time rather than to their same-sport contemporaries.

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I’ve written about Mikaela Shiffrin before. Then, as now, I agree with Bode Miller–I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anyone better in the sport of skiing, male or female.

At a certain point, the manner in which the best in any field evaluate themselves can’t be against other practitioners of that same pursuit. LeBron isn’t measured against his contemporaries; he’s measured against Jordan. Tiger in his prime was chasing not just Nicklaus but the limits of golf itself.

Here, then, are Mikaela Shiffrin’s eight most recent results on the World Cup Alpine ski circuit: first, first, first, first, first, fifth, first, second. The gap between Shiffrin and the skier in second place in the World Cup’s overall standings, Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, nearly covers the gap between Vlhova and Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather, who is in — get this — 14th.

So, Mikaela, how are you skiing?

“I would say there’s a lot of wiggle room, a lot of room for improvement,” she said in a phone interview this week.

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.