USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin Details Breakthrough Leading to Historic Olympic Gold
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An incredible breakthrough helped lead to Mikaela Shiffrin’s historic gold-medal performance in the women’s slalom on Wednesday.
After earning an Olympic victory for the first time in 12 years, Shiffrin mentioned a personal moment she experienced between her runs that helped her achieve the glory she had been seeking for over a decade.
Between her two trips down the mountain, Shiffrin found her thoughts focusing on her late father, Jeff Shiffrin, who, before his tragic death in Feb. 2020, was an instrumental figure throughout her skiing career.
“I would think about my dad,” she said to reporters after her race.
She added, while fighting back tears, “I don’t want to be in life without my dad. And maybe today was the first time I could actually accept this, like, really. And that I would be going into this moment without him to take the moment to be silent with him.”
For years, her father was one of her guiding forces, and his loss impacted her greatly both personally and professionally. In a recent docuseries, Shiffrin’s mother, Eileen, who is also her coach, said she was uncertain if her daughter would be able to continue skiing without her father by her side.
“This was a moment I have dreamed about, I’ve also been very scared of this moment,” she said. “Everything you do in life after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It’s like being born again. And I still have so many moments where I resist this.”
Wednesday’s performance was a quantum leap for the 30-year-old Olympic legend, who opened the event with a solid first run that allowed her to enter the final run with a 0.82-second advantage. Shiffrin finished things off with a final time of 1 minute, 39.10 seconds to take home her third career gold medal, becoming the first U.S. skier to do so.
“It felt like it was just on the limit,” she said about her race. “It was like, ‘Wooo, we’re just right up against it. We’re nudging the ceiling here.’ And that’s what I wanted to feel.”
It was Shiffrin’s first gold medal victory since the 2012 London Games and her first without her father along for the ride.
“It was just a little more spiritual than I usually am,” she said. “I’m really grateful for that.”
The longtime Olympian now has four medals to her record, with her last appearance on the medal stand coming in 2018. Her win on Wednesday exorcised demons dating back to a crash in in 2024, which led to a puncture wound in her abdomen.
It’s been a long road back for Shiffrin. Once again, she’s an Olympic champion.
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