Mikaela Shiffrin admits "frustrating" back pain is hampering her training

Double Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin revealed that she hasn't been able to train at full intensity in the last couple of weeks, according to The Associated Press.

The alpine superstar admitted that she's been suffering from a back pain and that she couldn't properly ski since 23 October, when the American clinched her 70th World Cup career victory in the season opener in Soelden, Austria.

Shiffrin described her pain as “a very severe muscle spasm or kind of a strain” and couldn't hide her frustration: "I just need to let it heal. It doesn’t take that long if I just take the time. But I want to be training right now...this is the bulk of time where I would normally be training all four events.”" the 26-year-old added.

Speaking to the press ahead of her seasonal debut, the second most successful female skier in World Cup history said that she aims to compete in all the individual events at the Winter Olympics in Beijing (Giant slalom, Slalom, Super G, Downhill and Combined - which adds times from slalom and downhill).

The American is now training in Copper Mountains, Colorado, and is expected to race next in the two slaloms in Levi, Finland, on 20-21 November (The parallel slalom in Lech/Zuhers on 13 Nov isn't in her schedule).

Last season another back injury kept the three-time overall World Cup winner off the slopes for a few weeks, but this time Shiffrin doesn't consider sitting out of any event in her plans.

The skier said she "can't imagine skipping" the World Cup stop in Killington, Vermont, on 27-28 November, while she intends to race the speed events in Lake Louise, Canada ("The only really thing in question for me right now").

The women's alpine competition at Beijing 2022 will start with the giant slalom event on 7 February 2022.