Rivals don't believe they can beat Shiffrin to overall title

With Mikaela Shiffrin's dominance in the Alpine skiing World Cup increasing each year, some of her main competitors don't seem to hold out much hope of beating the American standout for the overall title.

Like Wendy Holdener, who was runner-up to Shiffrin two years ago and third last season.

"I don't think about the overall at the moment. If it could be a battle, it would be great," the Swiss skier told The Associated Press on Thursday, two days before the season starts with a giant slalom on the Rettenbach glacier.

Or Sofia Goggia, who has finished in the top three overall a few times before a fractured ankle halted her challenge for most of last season.

"The goal is to confirm myself on the speed side. But I am not thinking about the overall," the Italian said.

It will likely leave Petra Vlhova as Shiffrin's main challenger again. The Slovakian technical specialist won five races last season and even beat Shiffrin once in the American's strongest discipline, slalom. Vlhova ended the season as the runner-up, but trailed Shiffrin by 801 points.

That was the American's biggest season-ending margin so far. Shiffrin led Ilka Stuhec of Slovenia by 274 points for her first big crystal globe in 2017, and the difference grew to 671 points over Holdener the next year.

What followed was a record-breaking season, including 17 World Cup wins to raise her career tally to 60, third on the all-time winners list of the women's World Cup. While Austrian great Annemarie Moser-Proell is within reach with 62 career wins, Shiffrin probably won't catch Lindsey Vonn this season. The retired four-time overall champions has 82 wins.

Apart from her third straight overall title, Shiffrin won the season titles in slalom, GS and super-G.

"Last season was huge and it was almost too much, so I think I have to be a little bit realistic, too," Shiffrin said about replicating her achievement.

What separates the upcoming season from the previous three is the lack of a major medal competition. With no Olympics or world championships in February 2020, Shiffrin might choose to step up her efforts in super-G and downhill.

"It actually gives an opportunity to test out a little bit more what I am able to do in speed," she said. "I feel more comfortable to push there because you don't have to be safe for a world championship."

While her build-up to the season has been similar to previous years and her team, led by head coach Mike Day, has remained unchanged, something will be different: mother Eileen, also one of her coaches, won't travel the whole circuit this season as she is also taking care of her 98-year-old mother.

"But I selfishly asked her when she is able to come, to travel and be with me because she has been a huge piece of my success," Shiffrin told the AP in a recent interview at the office of her equipment supplier, Atomic.

"Somebody who is so close to me, my mother is my best friend and also an incredible coach. I think that sets me apart from the other athletes," Shiffrin said. "It sounds a bit selfish but I don't want to let that go."

GOGGIA'S GOALS

Goggia, the Olympic downhill champion, saw her quest for last season's overall title end before the first race. A broken ankle kept her out until late January, but she returned with a bang, winning super-G silver at the world championship and a World Cup downhill in Switzerland the following month.

"The first races last season were a surprise but when you start with no real expectations, everything can happen," Goggia said. "When you have your back and your shoulders against the wall, you got one chance to do the right thing. So when it comes to being a shooter, I am a good shooter."

Goggia's injury forced her to sit out all but two giant slaloms last season, meaning she has dropped out of the top 30 in the discipline rankings and will get an unfavorable late start position in Saturday's race.

"I am going to start far behind. I really have no expectations but I have been working a lot," the Italian said. "In super-G and downhill I am OK, so I am pretty confident and solid."

HOLDENER'S HOPE

Having added a few extra days of speed training to her offseason schedule in Zermatt in her native Switzerland, Holdener might increase her number of starts in super-G and downhill.

"It's difficult to have, like, five disciplines. We will see how the season is starting, which events I am doing in speed. Normally I won't do a lot of downhills," she said.

Make no mistake, slalom and GS remain her main events.

"In GS I am top seven but the best girls are still a little bit in front of me," she said. "Last season sometimes I skied really good and then I took a step back. You shouldn't do that. You should fight until the finish."

One of Holdener's biggest wishes is to finally get that first win in slalom. She amassed 22 top-three results but is yet to win a race.

No skier, male or female, has ever had more World Cup podiums in a single discipline without a win.

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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)