Aleksander Aamodt Kilde wants to remain a downhill dominator. This puts extra pressure on the broad shoulders and causes bandage problems. He reveals sweet details about his relationship with ski superstar Mikaela Shiffrin.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is one of the biggest powerhouses in the Ski World Cup. A few years ago he got the nickname “Mr. Thigh”. Hardly any downhill skier throws himself down the slopes with such brute force as the Norwegian.
The 31-year-old is the top favorite in each of the three World Cup races in Val Gardena this week – the shooting runs in the Dolomites are among the vice world champion’s favorite races.
In the season – which is finally about to begin for the Alpine speed aces after two canceled race weekends – Kilde is even more in focus than in previous winters. And that’s not just because of his relationship with star racing driver Mikaela Shiffrin, with whom he has been in a relationship for almost three years.
Rather, the surprising resignation of teammate Lucas Braathen immediately before the start of the season increased the pressure on Kilde.
As an extroverted athlete and podium finisher, Braathen attracted a lot of attention, but ended his career at the age of 23 due to a dispute with the Norwegian association. The ski scene was shocked – and many eyes went to Kilde.
Kilde, the speed dominator
The veteran announced that he wanted to change the system that drove Braathen to resign. Norway’s Ski Association holds the marketing rights to its top athletes, which means that they cannot acquire and show private sponsors.
“That’s not right,” Kilde criticized in a recent interview. “We need the freedom to build our own brand. We also want to be people who can do whatever we want on our own social media platform.”
To get in the mood for this year’s Val Gardena three-pack with downhill runs on Thursday and Saturday as well as a Super-G on Friday (11:45 a.m.), Kilde posted a photo on Instagram from December 2015. At that time he was celebrating at the Super-G on the Saslong Piste achieved his first podium finish in the World Cup in third place. He is now the speed dominator.
Last season alone, the athlete, who was born near Oslo, took eight World Cup victories, including in the three downhill classics in Val Gardena, Wengen and Kitzbühel.
For two winters, the downhill crystal balls went to Kilde; in the overall ranking, only Marco Odermatt was better. The Swiss surprisingly snatched downhill gold from him at the World Championships in Courchevel. In 2020 Kilde won the big World Cup crystal ball.
In Val Gardena, where things are finally set to begin after the speed cancellations in Zermatt and most recently Beaver Creek, Kilde has already been at the top of the podium five times. “It’s no secret that the Saslong is one of my absolute favorite routes in the World Cup,” said the Norwegian last year and enthused: “The snow, the many jumps and the flow from start to finish are something very special.”
Kilde and Shiffrin: the dream couple of skiing
On Monday, he was very enthusiastic and posted a short video of his training in the Dolomites online and said that the fantastic panorama was also “a bit distracting”. There was a love smiley in the comments from her friend Shiffrin.
The exceptional athletes have been together since the beginning of 2021. If it had gone to Kilde, things could have started much earlier with the two of them, as the Norwegian recently told the Swiss newspaper “Blick”.
He first met Shiffrin more than ten years ago at a training camp in Chile. “I really liked her straight away. But because she was only 16 at the time and I was 19, the time wasn’t yet ripe for a romantic relationship.”
They then initially became Facebook friends. After Shiffrin’s father died in an accident at the beginning of 2020, contact became closer. Kilde told Shiffrin that he was always there for her.
“And it quickly became clear to me that I wanted to have a romantic relationship with this wonderful woman. But somehow I had the feeling that she didn’t want that.” He was wrong – and a little later it was Shiffrin who asked Kilde if he wanted to be her boyfriend. “Of course I said yes straight away,” reported the Scandinavian.
That was almost three years ago – and Kilde’s personal happiness also seems to have inspired him in sports. The powerhouse can prove this at the foot of the mighty Dolomites.