Aleksander Aamodt Kilde: Mikaela Shiffrin "gives me a lot of confidence"

Alpine skiing star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde reveals that advice from girlfriend Mikaela Shiffrin is helping him build confidence as he looks to win his first Olympic medal at Beijing 2022.

Shiffrin, who made her relationship with the Norwegian public last summer, is a two-time Olympic champion and could become the most decorated U.S. female skier at the Games breaking Julia Mancuso's record of four medals.

"We talk to each other about pretty much everything. And she gives me a lot of confidence because she has such a good mindset and I also see how she kind of handles these different situations," Kilde said.

"And it's really, really nice to have that kind of knowledge around you and we try to share experiences with each other. And that's incredible."

The 2020 overall World Cup winner explained what he can learn from Shiffrin:

"Just in general how things are feeling, experiences, decision-making. All those general things about skiing, not really too much technical.

"She sends me videos and I send her videos and then we try to learn from each other a little. I have a lot to learn from her."

Kilde: It's really nice to have Mikaela here

For the first time since Torino 2006, also alpine skiers can live the experience of an Olympic Village, in previous Winter Games they have stayed in hotels, .

But that doesn't mean that Kilde and Shiffrin can really spend time together as a normal couple:

"Everybody says 'Yeah, now you can spend so much time together and it's nice to have her' but it's more challenging. With Covid and restrictions, you have to be really careful," the Norwegian said.

"It's a tease kind of, if you know what I mean. You see her but you can't really touch her, can't really be with her that much. But it's really nice to have her here.

"We are keeping the same routine as always, face-timing, talking on the phone. We try to be careful because if we get Covid then the consequences are too big."

"Of course we can eat dinner together and it's no problem. We really enjoy that."

Kilde: Leading the Attacking Vikings at Beijing 2022

Just one year ago Kilde suffered an ACL injury in training that cut his season short after a promising start.

After a laborious rehab, this season the 29-year-old has come back to the World Cup stronger than ever and he's having his best season to date with a total of six wins.

"It's been a long process. It's been 13 months now and I still feel my knee. But you know, it's been a journey," he said.

"It's been so much fun and also a lot of hard work and just a grind in the beginning where you can't really do much other than the rigours of training, eating, sleeping and 'don't do anything stupid' and try to be kind of patient and keep calm in the process and do the right things.

"And I know my skiing was good before I got injured, so I had a pretty high confidence coming back and knowing that if everything works with the knee, then I'll be back with high speeds as soon as possible and it's been working pretty well!"

With Aksel Lund Svindal now retired and Kjetil Jansrud ready to hang up his skis soon, Kilde has become the leader of the Attacking Vikings.

A role that he fully embraces.

"It's big shoes to fill. There's definitely been delivered some amazing results there, but I've gotten pretty used to that, you know, with being in the shadow and knowing that they will deliver.

"But now tables have turned and I'm there now and I have to kind of do my job and I like to be in that position and I'm really going to enjoy this Olympics."

When to watch Aleksander Aamodt Kilde compete at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022?

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde will be competing for medals in the men's downhill on Sunday 6 February at 11:00 Beijing time (19:00 PT on Saturday).

He will be at the start of the men's super-G on Tuesday 8 February at 11:00 local time (19:00 PT on Monday), and he will also race the men's giant slalom on Sunday 13 February (run 1 starts at 10:15, run 2 at 13:45 local time).