SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Mikaela Shiffrin is no longer the only U.S. woman making herself at home on the podium.
The U.S. women last week wrapped up their most successful season in more than a decade. Five different women made World Cup podiums, while four women got medals at the world championships.
“It’s a pretty special time to be part of the women’s U.S. ski team, tech or speed. We just continue to build off each other,” Paula Moltzan, who was the bronze medalist in two World Cup races and also finished third in the giant slalom at the world championships, said after wrapping up the World Cup finals.
“Hopefully we’re able to carry that momentum into the first couple races of the season and then yeah, carry it into the Olympics.”
For the last four decades, the Americans have always had a dominant female skier. Sometimes the dominant female skier. Tamara McKinney. Picabo Street. Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin. But it was often a two-woman show at the end of Vonn’s career — the first iteration — and, during her five-year hiatus, up to Shiffrin to carry the load.
No more.
When Lauren Macuga won the super-G in St. Anton, Austria, it was the first time a U.S. woman not named Shiffrin or Vonn had been atop a World Cup podium since 2013, when Alice McKennis won the downhill, also in St. Anton. Breezy’s Johnson’s gold in the downhill at the world championships was the first win in an individual event at worlds by someone other than Shiffrin or Vonn since Hilary Lindh, also in the downhill, in 1997.
And Vonn’s silver medal in the super-G at the World Cup finals made her the fifth different U.S. woman to make a World Cup podium this season, the most since there were seven in 2012-13.
In addition to Moltzan and Vonn’s World Cup success, Shiffrin had four wins and a third-place finish in slalom, despite missing two months after a crash at Killington, Vermont, left her with a deep gash in her obliques. Macuga, who is 22, had a downhill silver in addition to her super-G win. Johnson won a bronze medal in the downhill.
“We always hope that we get these new generations coming in,” said Vonn, who came out of retirement in November after having a partial knee replacement. “And I think we’ve been waiting a little while for someone like Lauren Macuga to come along, and it’s great to see that because she’s so young. She’s going to keep going for a long time and we really need that.
“We’ve got to see that new group coming up and I think we have that. Especially on the technical side, we really have a strong group,” Vonn added. “It’s great to see because it’s the kind of thing that we need to keep stimulating ski racing in the U.S.”
While ski racing is expensive — athletes spend five months traversing Europe and North America in the World Cup season, and preseason training camps are often in the southern hemisphere — that alone doesn’t explain the depth challenge the Americans have had.
Training together as a team but then competing against one another in races is a challenge that doesn’t suit all athletes. But this group has found a way to make it work.
It doesn’t mean they care any less or are any less competitive. They’ve simply found a way to maximize the benefits of being part of a team, feeding off one another rather than feeding on one another.
“Finding the balance between being a supportive teammate and a fierce competitor is hard,” Shiffrin said. “I just feel like this group of women has been able to strike that balance in a really unique way that’s different from anything I’ve ever experienced or been able to witness. And that’s pretty cool going into next season.”
The atmosphere is also helping the women who didn’t make the podium. Nina O’Brien had her best season with four top-10 finishes — one more than in her previous seasons combined. Jacqueline Wiles had two top-10 finishes in the downhill. AJ Hurt was in the top 20 in both of her individual events at the world championships, giant slalom (13) and slalom (19).
“It’s been so much fun,” O’Brien said. “Our team has been pushing each other and it feels like every race, somebody is shining, which is really cool.”
The U.S. women, coming in hot to the Olympic year.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.