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Kilde up close: Superstar talks Birds of Prey, Mikaela Shiffrin and how he’s fighting for Norwegian athletes’ rights

The 31-year-old Norwegian kicks off his quest for a downhill crystal globe three-peat at a place he's won four-straight races: Beaver Creek

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway starts a men's World Cup downhill training run Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2023, in Beaver Creek, Colo.
John Locher/AP photo

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde has set a high bar for introspectively evaluating what a successful Birds of Prey World Cup weekend looks like. But the 31-year-old Norwegian knows standing on the top step of another podium isn’t the only prerequisite for a good time in Beaver Creek.

“I always had a very joyful moment skiing this hill — it’s one of my favorite destinations throughout the year,” said Kilde, who won back-to-back Birds of Prey races in both 2021 and 2022. “And I think that’s one of the reasons I also can just let go and ski it fast without having any issues.” 

Should he fail to win a fifth-straight time in Beaver Creek, Kilde will find comfort in the inherently minuscule margins often separating first and fifth — and 25th.



“It’s tiny margins. You miss one turn and you’re out. So, (not winning) is easy to swallow,” he said.

“I’m not saying you can blame something always, (but) it’s not cross-country where if you’re out of shape, you’re out of shape.”

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Even without a preceding World Cup downhill to prime the pump, as the Zermatt-Cervinia event on Nov. 12 was canceled, mental and physical fitness won’t be an issue, Kilde said.

“It’s a little bit different,” he said regarding his confidence opening the year on Friday instead of say, Lake Louise a week ago. “But it’s a very good start, too, because it’s good snow, it’s fun to ski, it’s challenging — but it’s not dangerous I would say. Going straight into Kitzbühel would be a bit different.” 

Then he aptly added, “And of course, this is a place where I’ve been fast before, so for me, it’s just ‘do the normal things.'”

Kilde has certainly cracked the Colorado code. He said the Birds of Prey course — with its mix of technical steeps favoring GS guys and big jumps and long gliding sections benefiting the true downhillers — accentuate his identity, which he characterized as a “technical skier within downhill.”

“I’m not just a glider, but I also can do fast turns. And this is a place you can really pull them off because the snow is so fantastic,” he said.


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“You have the capability of going super clean, a tight line, and executing it. That’s something I’ve loved by being here.”

When he’s navigating features at 60 miles per hour, Kilde said sometimes he doesn’t realize how lost momentum from a pinched gate or errant line cost him podium-altering hundredths until he’s looking up at the finish-line big screen. Other times it’s obvious, like his “big mistake” during Wednesday’s training run, where he finished fifth.

“There, I lost a lot of time, and to the best guy I lost a second. That I could feel right away,” he said.

The two-time defending downhill crystal globe winner always tries to maintain a mindset of “next one, next one, next one” when he’s going from Russi’s Ride through The Abyss and over the Redtail Jump.

“I think one of the most important things as a skier, especially during races, is to try and focus on what’s coming,” he said. “Not what’s happened.”

Klaebo and Kilde at odds with the Norwegian Ski Federation

Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde skis during Tuesday’s downhill training session.
John Locher/AP photo

For the last three seasons, Kilde said he has been working to create a “new structure” to athletes’ Norwegian national team contracts. Kilde, along with 2023 slalom crystal globe winner Lucas Braathen (who unexpectedly retired at the age of 23 this October) and the all-time winningest male cross-country skier, Johannes Klaebo, have made Norwegian news headlines because of a disagreement with the Norwegian Ski Federation over image rights. After winning a record 20 World Cup races last season, the 27-year-old Klaebo, who shares Kilde’s lawyer in the dispute, left the national team last spring because of a “difference in values.”

“Right now in our contract, it says the Ski Federation owns our image rights 24-7, 365 days a year. And we as athletes, we think that’s not right,” Kilde said. “We need it to be a better solution.”

Kilde said he can’t, for example, make Instagram posts with private sponsors unless Telenor, a national team sponsor, is visible as well. He believes the changing landscape of social media-based branding opportunities is something the Norwegian Ski Federation has been slow to recognize and adapt to.

“It’s not only about TV and newspapers like it was before — now we have other platforms where we can have value for every athlete,” Kilde said. “I think it’s just an old-fashioned structure that we need to change. We tried to do without ruining anything, because in the end, it’s about finding a win-win situation.”

Kilde said athletes understand national-team sponsors allow them to “do what we do, do what we love.”

“But we need the freedom to build our own brand, too,” he added. “We also want to be humans on the side where we can do what we want on social media on our own platform.” 

Surprised by Shiffrin?

Mikaela Shiffrin, left, and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde attend the Time100 Gala, celebrating the 100 most influential people in the world, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 26, 2023, in New York.
Evan Agostini/AP photo

Mikaela Shiffrin has looked sharper than ever — winning two slaloms and placing third, fourth and sixth in her other three races this season — despite a less-than-perfect prep period and a practice crash, which eliminated another training week before a surprise win in Levi, Finland. According to Kilde, however, the Edwards skier, whom he’s dated since 2021, didn’t exactly emanate GOAT-like vibes prior to the Nov. 25 Killington World Cup.

“I talk with her every night and I get a sort of feeling of how she is and if she’s ready or not, and honestly, before Killington, she wasn’t ready at all,” he said.

“She said to me she didn’t feel good. I also felt like she was a little bit down, and I was just like, ‘Well, yeah, then just try to enjoy this weekend.'”

The World Cup career-wins record holder took third in the giant slalom and won the slalom — her sixth victory in the seven Killington World Cup slaloms ever held.

“And then I’m just like, ‘Wow, this lady is amazing.’ I knew that from before, too,” Kilde said.

“I never get surprised about her performances anymore because her capabilities of delivering when she needs to is unreal.”

Even with Shiffrin’s intention to add more speed events to the schedule, Kilde said the couple’s conversation around skiing organically remains tethered to the task at hand.

“Whatever we do, we talk about it and we try to exchange experiences and take advantage of being someone in a good position of delivering good results,” he said. “Right now, I feel it comes more natural than anything else.”

Still, Kilde said neither person is a one-track soul incapable of veering the conversation away from the ins and outs of course profiles or obscure sector stats.

“Probably a lot of people think that. But, no. We turn off, too,” Kilde said. “Like everyone else, you get sick of what you’re doing sometimes, and we need some distance.”

Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, at left, celebrates on the podium with artist Anne Price after winning the World Cup downhill last year in Beaver Creek.
Robert F. Bukaty/AP photo

When asked if a royal wedding for the king and queen of Alpine skiing was in the near future, Kilde smiled, then indicated the press wouldn’t be the first to find out such intel if there was.

“We talk about the future for sure. The future is what we live for. We have a really good time together, and that’s what’s important, and if that turns into a marriage and having kids, then that would be awesome,” he said before adding that the couple is “taking it one step at a time.”

“Being able to share a life on the road together with someone who lives the same life is just amazing. And the next step will be something more exciting I guess. We’ll figure that out when it comes.” 

While Shiffrin goes for career win No. 91 and 92 in Tremblant, Canada Saturday and Sunday, Kilde will eye No. 22 beginning Friday at 10:45 a.m. If history is any indication, he might leave Beaver Creek Sunday with No. 24, too. But he’s not stressing too much about it.

“I know that if I feel like I’m ready, I’m ready. If I win, then, awesome. Everything worked,” he said.

“If I don’t win, then I look back and say, ‘ok, today didn’t work the way I wanted it to, but I still have the confidence that I can win, and I’m on the right track and keep on working.” 


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