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Alyssa Roenigk
Multiple Authors
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — On Wednesday, Mikaela Shiffrin will step into the Olympic slalom start gate as the leading contender for gold. On Sunday, she made a significant move toward that aspiration.
Shiffrin was not anticipated to medal in the giant slalom on Sunday. even with being the 2018 Olympic gold medalist in that category and the all-time leader in World Cup wins, Shiffrin had only recently returned to the GS podium in January. Less than a year prior, she was uncertain whether she would ever compete in another giant slalom event.
“After my injury last year and then getting back into GS racing, I felt so far behind,” Shiffrin remarked on Sunday. “It seemed like there was no chance to improve.”
That’s why her 11th-place finish in the giant slalom felt like a victory for the 30-year-old, and she was all smiles in the mixed zone post-race, calling it “a beautiful day of racing.” Shiffrin navigated the course with smooth, precise turns and expressed that she was channeling “nervous energy into intensity, drawing power from the course.” Her result was just a few tenths away from the podium, marking a positive progression.
“To be here now, just keeping pace with the fastest women, is a monumental achievement for me,” Shiffrin declared. “I’m truly proud.”
Fifteen months earlier, in November 2024, Shiffrin suffered a crash during a GS race in Killington, Vermont, while aiming for her 100th World Cup title at her home event. She veered off-course into safety nets, and it was later discovered she had been impaled in her abdomen by a slalom gate during the accident. The physical recovery from her injury was arduous, and her mental path back to competition was even longer.
Shiffrin has openly addressed her struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder as she fought to return. In a May essay for The Players’ Tribune, she described how her mind and body became disconnected after the accident — a ski racing version of the “twisties.”
“It’s essential to trust that what you visualize in your mind is completely aligned with your physical actions,” she explained. “If that connection falters… the risk level increases significantly.”
Shiffrin gradually regained her footing through therapy, exposure, and by releasing her attachment to results. As soon as she stopped fixating on times, podiums, or medals, the fear began to diminish. In January, she secured third place in a World Cup giant slalom, marking her first podium since the incident.
As the Olympics approach, expectations and pressure become unavoidable; unlike the World Cup circuit, opportunities in the Olympics happen only once every four years. The first week of these Games saw several elite athletes buckle under the stress, including Shiffrin, who finished 15th out of 18 racers in the slalom of last week’s team combined, losing the lead that her teammate, Breezy Johnson, had established after the downhill.
That’s why on Sunday, she focused solely on the positives from her GS performance, an event she hasn’t consistently participated in since her injury. “I thought, maybe I’ll never race GS again,” Shiffrin said. “And here we are, in a radically different situation, which proves that you can overcome.”
Wednesday’s slalom will present a new challenge.
The slalom is Shiffrin’s signature event. Seventy-one of her record 108 World Cup victories have come in the slalom — more than any skier in history — and this season, she has already clinched seven wins out of eight starts alongside her ninth slalom Crystal Globe.
yet, Shiffrin has had a tumultuous history with the Olympics. Though a two-time Olympic gold medalist, she has not medaled in her last eight Olympic starts. For Shiffrin, like many ski racers, achievements come with crashes, injuries, setbacks, comebacks, and notable victories in critical moments.
At 18, she made history as the youngest Olympic slalom champion in Sochi. Since then, she has not secured Olympic slalom gold.
In Pyeongchang, she walked away with giant slalom gold but also faced disappointment.
In Beijing, the pressure overwhelmed her. Expected to earn medals in at least three of the six events she entered, she left empty-handed.
“I don’t want my Beijing experience to instill fear of the Olympics in me,” Shiffrin commented to Olympics.com last fall. Just before reaching Cortina, she recorded a podcast episode discussing the realization that “the Olympics are not structured to prioritize the comfort or performance of the athletes and teams involved.”
After her disappointing Beijing outing, Shiffrin broke the World Cup wins record. Following injuries over the next two seasons, she has dominated the slalom this year and is facing a perplexing start to her fourth Olympics.
Even for the greatest of all time, success is not a straightforward path.
On Wednesday, Shiffrin will have two runs to trust her mind and body — and to trust herself to be the best in the world. She mentioned that she and her team had a “really wonderful” slalom training session and feels more prepared for her final race, equipped with valuable insights on how to ski quickly on this course and a refreshed mindset.
“I noticed several turns where I was quite fast during the team combined day, and some where there was just a misalignment,” Shiffrin stated. “My mentality didn’t align with the situation. So I’m approaching [Wednesday] with the understanding that we might face a similar scenario [to last week]. I will try to approach it differently.”
On Wednesday, handling it in a different way could mean more than just gold.
