... They move like silk in the wind. ...grace...
...efficiency of movement ...options. .... It should feel effortless.... .
Silk in the wind, I like that. Grace, yes. Efficiency - optional. Quite often what looks easy - isn't. Options - another invisible talent, you only see the outcome of the option chosen, not the many available. Effortless, has it's place, but again, optional.
Well yes, but the point Mikaela was making is "slow is slow". The clock doesn't care if one is smooth or not. And in racing all that matters is the end result.
Watching Mikaela on the afternoon slalom run at Killington, many top racers before her skidded, slipped, or missed gates on the first 6 turns. Mikaela made it look like a marble down a celery stalk. Smooth, surgical, rhythmic, precise. Effortless? No way.
Anyone that spends time on skis and doesn't fall, is a good skier. Learn all the right movements and discard the unnecessary ones makes them a better skier.
As others have said, falling is not the exclusive province of the not-so-good skier. If you push yourself to learn, you fall.
Efficient or not, the good skier to me has style, and by that I mean they have made it their own. You can pick them out on the hill from a distance once you know their style. Exuberance. Clearly having fun. They own the terrain. Usually this means grace, well throttled power, smoothness, but it might not. Radio Ron, for example, is usually a cascading flash of gyrating color.