Originally Posted by
anotherVTskibum
Shifrin's dominance is due in no small part to the hard work she did before getting to the World Cup and her ability to keep working that hard—and figuring out the right things to work on—while on the tour. At the elite level, everyone on the start list is incredibly athletic and performing at a very high level; being at the top of the heap is usually a small (but significant) incremental difference. The chance of anyone in her age cohort being able to gain an edge where she has a significant advantage (based on doing foundational things either a little, or a lot, better, for years) is slim, unless she gives up some of that advantage (due to injury, refocusing on other events, suddenly deciding that she'd rather ski powder than do drills, etc.).
However, there have been a lot of eyes on her and her support team for some years now, and you can bet that there are other people trying to apply lessons from her program to build the next superstar. Figuring out which lessons to apply isn't easy—no two people are the same, and just to pick on one athlete, I doubt Shifrin's program would've worked for Bode—but I'd bet that there are athletes rising through the ranks now that will challenge her in seasons to come.