Why Mikaela Shiffrin has different feelings about the 2026 Winter Olympics

“I’m going to stay true to myself and stay focused and put everything on the mountain,” Mikaela Shiffrin told USA TODAY Sports.

• Mikaela Shiffrin has achieved a major career milestone since the 2022 Beijing Olympics, including winning her 100th World Cup.
• Shiffrin faces public focus on the Olympics compared to her consistent success in other competitions.
• Despite her past Olympic successes, she feels her work as a whole is a better reflection of her dedication than a single medal.
• Shiffrin aims to approach the upcoming Milan-Cortina Olympics with a focus on her performance and enjoyment, not just results.

EDWARDS, Colo. — One month after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin has won her fourth overall title. A year later, she broke Ingemar Stenmark’s long-held record for most World Cup wins. Two years later, she won her 100th World Cup, setting a record that will surely stand for decades, if not forever.

This means that while the Olympics mean everything to the public, they are only part of Shiffrin’s important legacy.

And she doesn’t quite know how to solve it.

“There are external factors that really make the Olympics more important. Every time I go to the Olympics, I feel like I was subconsciously aware of that. But I was mostly naive. Or maybe a little bit blind,” Shiffrin, 30, told USA TODAY Sports.

“I think people now consciously understand how much they value that two-week period once every four years, and I have no idea what to do with it.”

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This isn’t because of what happened at the Beijing Olympics, where Shiffrin had a Groundhog Day-like nightmare. Although she was expected to win medals in multiple events, she was unable to complete the slalom, giant slalom, and alpine combined events, leaving her empty-handed.

To put this into context, she only had two DNFs in the past three seasons. She gave birth three times in 11 days in Beijing.

Shiffrin’s personal disappointment was compounded by the amount of abuse she received online, with trolls flooding her social media accounts to criticize and mock her. Some suggested that the then-26-year-old should retire. Some said she should not return to the United States.

It’s cruel, but Shiffrin’s feelings about the Olympics were already complicated.

she is not alone.

Winter Olympians in particular compete in the World Cup every season and hold a World Championship every year. Many consider them to be a better measure, even if it happened when most of the world wasn’t looking.

“Everyone here is very focused on the Olympics, but we all have a lot of big careers outside of the Olympics,” said Paula Moltzan, who has been on the podium four times at this season’s World Cup. “So, for me, I would love to perform on the day of the Olympics. But if that doesn’t happen, there are many other races where I can perform and show my best skiing.”

That’s not to say the Olympics don’t mean a lot to Shiffrin. that’s right. She, like almost every other athlete competing in Milan-Cortina, grew up dreaming of the Olympics. And she has had more success at the Winter Olympics than any other athlete.

Her first Olympic gold medal in the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics announced to the world that she was the next great American skier. His second appearance in the giant slalom, four years later, remains one of the next. of Highlights of her career.

She also won silver in the individual all-around in 2018, one spot shy of Julia Mancuso’s U.S. women’s record.

But Shiffrin is driven by process, fabrication, tweaking, and training in an endless pursuit of perfection. Medals and titles are just a reflection of that. Consistency and longevity are her goals.

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It’s too simplistic to race for an Olympic gold medal, or silver or bronze medal, or to limit your body of work to one race or one event.

“In some ways, an Olympic medal is literally an Olympic medal,” Shiffrin said. “You want it to be a symbol that represents everything. It definitely represents hard work. It’s a symbol of years of dedication and sacrifice and all of that.”

“But at the end of the day, people talk about other records and globes that I have, but it’s about a lifetime of dedication and hard work and passion and just being relentless that created the ability for me as a human being to accomplish these things,” she said. “And when it comes to (Olympic) medals, it’s all about ‘Olympic gold medalist.’ Just an Olympic gold medalist.

“The funny thing is, it’s hard to attach meaning, really healthy meaning, to Olympic medals.”

But she is determined to take on the challenge. But it’s not because she feels she has something to prove or that she feels she owes some anonymous keyboard warriors something. The most important people in her life – her fiancé, Norwegian skier Alexander Aamodt Kilde. her mother. her brother and sister-in-law. Her good friends are there for the following reasons: who She is not about what she does or how many medals she wins.

Something golfer Scottie Scheffler said last summer also resonated with her.

Scheffler was the best golfer of his generation, winning four majors and becoming an Olympic champion before his 30th birthday. But at the 2024 British Open, he said he realized how fleeting the satisfaction of victory can be. Even very large ones.

“It’s a really great moment. And then you’re like, ‘Okay, what are we going to have for dinner?’ Life goes on,” Scheffler said.

That’s the attitude Shiffrin wants to convey in Milano-Cortina, a place she loves and knows well. No matter what happens, for better or worse, life goes on. Like after Sochi, after Pyeongchang, and after Beijing. So Shiffrin might as well enjoy her fourth Olympics, especially after missing the majority of the past two seasons with injuries.

She’s gained confidence through her hard work and the way she’s skied this season – looking effortlessly dominant in recent races – rather than focusing on everything she can’t control.

“You do what you’re supposed to do every day and trust it completely. You make the decision to commit,” Shiffrin’s head coach Karin Harjo said. “It sounds easy, but it’s actually very difficult to do, especially when you’re carrying the weight and pressure of the world. But she’s getting better at it.”

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Shiffrin has won all but one slalom race on the World Cup circuit so far this season. What didn’t she win? She took second place. Despite still having two races remaining after the Olympics, her victory on January 25 gives her her ninth season title and a new record for a single-sport event.

She is leading the race for her sixth overall title. She has won 108 World Cups and finished on the podium 166 times, both impressive numbers.

And after struggling in giant slalom after sustaining a puncture wound to her oblique muscle and PTSD in a November 2024 accident, she reached the podium for the first time in two years in the event, finishing third in her final GS race before the Games.

Shiffrin will compete in the giant slalom, slalom and team combined races at Milan-Cortina.

“Those moments where you win or win or win a medal, that’s just a small part of your life. Even if you spend all your time doing that, the rest of your time is a big part of your life,” Shiffrin said. “It’s worth putting your energy into.”

That doesn’t mean she doesn’t try to be the fastest down the mountain. Or she’s not going to spend all of her energy and effort making each turn as perfect as possible and bringing what she did in training to the race.

That way, Shiffrin can be satisfied with her Olympic performance, medal or no medal.

“I’m just going to enjoy this and I’m going to do the best I can,” she said. “I’m going to train hard and focus on the skills I’ve built over time. And I’m going to stay true to myself and stay focused and give it all to the mountain.”