Over the weekend, Mikaela Shiffrin surpassed Ingemar Stenmark for the most victories ever on the World Cup circuit.
On Saturday, WMUR interviewed Matthew Purcell of the New Hampshire Alpine Racing Association, who started coaching Mikaela back when she was eleven. Purcell also worked with her last summer to prepare for the World Cup season.
He took time in the interview to congratulate Shiffrin, and describe when he knew that Mikaela was going to be a legend:
“You know, she’s an 11-year-old girl and she was very focused that she was going to be on the world cup, she was going to be on the U.S. ski team, and she far exceeded those goals.”
While her roots in New Hampshire aren’t as deep as they are in Colorado and Vermont, she still lived in the state for some time and trained at the Storrs Hill Ski Area. She then went on to race for Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont and entered the World Cup circuit in 2011. The rest is history.
The video report from WMUR is below.
Image/Video Credits: WMUR, Mikaela Shiffrin