Mikaela Shiffrin will adjust her competitive focus for the upcoming winter, shifting training time away from slalom to concentrate on giant slalom and super-G events.
The 31-year-old American announced the decision on Tuesday, describing the upcoming year as a period of personal discovery. The strategy follows a campaign in which she secured her second Olympic slalom gold in February at the Milan Cortina Games and earned her ninth World Cup discipline title.
The season begins on 24 October with a giant slalom in Soelden, Austria. Shiffrin expects her first slalom appearance to come over Thanksgiving weekend in Killington, Vermont, with further plans to be decided afterwards.
"I'm not trying to do less because I care less. I'm trying to do something different because I still care SO much," Shiffrin said in a statement. "The joy for me has never been about medals or records."
She added: "This season is an exploration. We're calling it the exploration season."
Shiffrin claimed her sixth overall World Cup title last season by 87 points over Germany's Emma Aicher, alongside taking the slalom crystal globe over Camille Rast of Switzerland. However, she finished fourth in giant slalom and outside the top 30 in super-G, an event blending downhill speed with giant slalom turns where her last World Cup win came in December 2022. She also recorded a downhill victory in 2023.
"Racing slalom underprepared would be like jumping into a giant blender and just trying to avoid the blades," Shiffrin said. "I'm trying a little bit more to live in the gratitude of it and ski because I want to ski. ... I'm not looking for less commitment. I'm not looking for actually even less effort."
She added: "I feel ambitious. I still feel competitive. I feel like I have a desire to ski fast. I feel like those things haven't changed. I'm really just giving myself permission to be curious about where that takes me, and that's the exploration."
Shiffrin also intends to continue hosting her podcast, "What's the Point with Mikaela Shiffrin."