Shiffrin embracing more pressure after record-setting season

The sky's the limit for Mikaela Shiffrin after winning a record 17 World Cup races last season.

And not just because she reached lofty heights as a passenger in an F-16 jet with the Air Force's Thunderbirds this offseason, either.

The 24-year-old ski racer from Colorado isn't saying she can replicate that kind of success on the slopes again.

She's not saying she can't, either.

Shiffrin is thinking big as she heads into a season where she will be counted on to carry her sport even more with the retirements of stars like Lindsey Vonn , Marcel Hirscher and Aksel Lund Svindal.

Although, Shiffrin doesn't view it as pressure so much as an opportunity — for her and others.

"We really have a lot of great athletes, great personalities," Shiffrin said as the World Cup season gets set to open Saturday with the women's giant slalom race in Soelden, Austria. "Some of the other women, some of the other men, they are going to be excited that they can be stars."

Make no mistake: The three-time overall World Cup winner is the undisputed face of the sport with Vonn and Svindal announcing their retirements a while back, and Hirscher revealing his decision to step away last month after winning eight overall titles. He captured 67 of his 245 World Cup races, trailing only Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Vonn (82) on the all-time list.

"I do feel like all of these retirements have definitely sort of rocked the boat a bit in the ski-racing world," said Shiffrin, who's won 60 World Cup races in 157 starts. "For me, Marcel's retirement, so far that's one of the most impactful ... I've really, really looked up to him and been inspired by his skiing for so long."

She plans to sprinkle in a few more speed events this season since there are no Olympics or world championships. It's a way to test her limits.

"But I'm going to take the same mindset of listening to my body and see how it's feeling," the two-time Olympic champion said.

It's an approach that served her well last season. A quick recap:

— With her first super-G victory at Lake Louise last December, Shiffrin became the first athlete in FIS World Cup history to win in all six disciplines.

— Earned her fourth-straight slalom title at the world championships in Are, Sweden.

— Finished with 17 World Cup wins to eclipse the mark for most in a season (14) that was held by Vreni Schneider.

For the 2019-20 season, she said she's setting realistic goals because, "who in their right mind can expect to keep repeating that forever?" Shiffrin cracked of her recent success.

"I may be not always in my right mind so if anyone would expect that it would be me," she added. "I talked a lot last year about not really paying attention to expectations and sort of knowing there's a difference between expectations versus standards and trying to keep my standards of my own skiing high and not having expectations. For whatever reason, that mindset clicked for me last year."

So, she will keep that tactic.

"How do I out-do myself?" Shiffrin said. "Every year is different. You don't know who worked harder and got better. You have to roll with it and see what's possible. It's very unpredictable. That can be nerve-wracking."

As for how long she plans to compete, well, it's based on various factors such as health and enjoyment.

"My motivation doesn't come from breaking records," said Shiffrin, whose mom/coach Eileen plans to accompany her as often as she can (Eileen's also helping care for Shiffrin's grandmother). "I still find so much joy from skiing, and feeling my turns getting better and improving. As long as that's there, I'm ready to keep going.

"I don't really have a timeline. I don't know if I'm going to make it until I'm 30 or if I'm going to retire before that or after that. I probably don't see myself going well beyond 30. But at same time, if I'm at that point and I'm still having an absolute blast and still reaching my own ... standards of skiing, I'll keep going."

It was an eventful offseason for Shiffrin, who found time between training sessions to get settled into her new house , be a presenter with NBA rookie Zion Williamson at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Sports Awards and experience g-forces as a passenger on board an F-16.

"That was insane," Shiffrin said of her aircraft ride-along. "That's probably going to top my list of wildest things I've done — or will do."

Associated Press Writer Eric Willemsen contributed to this report.

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The state of Vermont did not provide adequate oversight to prevent the massive fraud that occurred in ski area and other development projects funded by foreign investors' money through a special visa program, a state audit has found.

The financial scandal first revealed in 2016, which became the state's largest fraud case, shook Vermont and the economically depressed region called the Northeast Kingdom.

In 2018, Vermont's former attorney general asked for an audit of the state's involvement in the projects at Jay Peak and Burke resorts to address the loss of trust in state government from the fraud, State Auditor Doug Hoffer wrote in the report released on Thursday. The audit was completed after the legal proceedings concluded, he wrote.

The findings should not be entirely surprising, Hoffer wrote.

“In short, we found a pattern of misplaced trust, unfortunate decision-making, lengthy delays, and missed opportunities to prevent or minimize fraud,” Hoffer wrote.

Ariel Quiros, a Miami businessman and former owner of two Vermont ski resorts, was sentenced in 2022 to five years in prison for his role in a failed plan to build a biotechnology plant in Newport using tens of millions of dollars raised through the EB-5 visa program. Under the program, foreigners invest $500,000 in U.S. a project that creates at least 10 jobs in exchange for a chance to earn permanent U.S. residency. William Stenger, the former president of Jay Peak, and William Kelly, an advisor to Quiros, each got sentences of 18 months.

But the fraud encompassed seven other projects at Jay Peak and Burke resorts.

In 2016, the federal Securities and Exchange Commission and the state of Vermont alleged that Quiros and Stenger took part in a “massive eight-year fraudulent scheme.” The civil allegations involved misusing more than $200 million of about $400 million raised from foreign investors for various ski area developments through the EB-5 visa program “in Ponzi-like fashion.”

In a Ponzi scheme, money provided by new investors is used to pay high returns to early-stage investors to suggest the enterprise is prosperous. The scheme collapses when required redemptions exceed new investments.

Quiros and Stenger settled civil charges with the SEC, with Quiros surrendering more than $80 million in assets, including the two resorts. In the seven projects at Jay Peak and Burke, “construction was done but not always to the specifications or at the costs told to the investors. Significant funds were simply misused,” the report said.

Under the EB-5 program, the federal government designates regional centers to promote economic growth and oversee and monitor sponsored projects, the report states. Most regional centers are privately owned but the Vermont Regional Center was state government-run.

The center, which was the EB-5 office within the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, had competing duties: to market and promote EB-5 projects and to regulate them, the auditor's report states.

"Experts and policymakers have long warned against such arrangements for fear that an agency relied upon to help a project succeed may be reluctant to exercise its regulatory powers. In addition, a marketing office may not have the skill sets needed to properly regulate complex financial arrangements such as EB-5. Unfortunately, this proved all too true at ACCD,” the report states.

Last July, the state of Vermont agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle all pending and potential lawsuits from foreign investors in the development projects.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is still determining the immigration status of the Jay Peak and Burke investors, Goldstein wrote. At least 424 of 564 Jay Peak investors have already received green cards and the state is working to increase the chances that many more do, she wrote.

FILE - The water park at Jay Peak resort in Jay, Vt., April 18, 2016. A state audit has concluded Thursday, March 28, 2024, that Vermont did not provide adequate oversight to prevent the massive fraud that occurred in ski area and other development projects funded by foreign investors' money through a special visa program. (AP Photo/Lisa Rathke, File)