As the snow begins to dust the Alps and the 2025-26 World Cup season looms on the horizon, alpine skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin is charting a deliberate path toward redemption at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics. The 30-year-old American, holder of a record 101 World Cup victories and two Olympic golds, announced she will skip downhill events entirely this season, opting instead to sharpen her edge in her signature technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom (GS). It’s a strategic retreat born from hard-won lessons in injury, recovery, and mental resilience – one that could propel her back to the top of the podium in Italy.
Speaking at Atomic’s annual media day in Bergheim, Austria, on October 9, Shiffrin was candid about her decision. “No downhill,” she said flatly, echoing a choice she made last season but reaffirming it with renewed conviction ahead of what may or may not be her final Olympic chapter. The move comes after a pair of harrowing crashes that tested her physically and psychologically: a December 2023 super-G DNF in Val d’Isère, France, followed by a January 2024 downhill wipeout on the very Olympic course in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, where she severely injured her knee. That latter incident not only sidelined her but triggered a battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), forcing a “fight or flight” reckoning that saw her rankings plummet and her love for the sport flicker.
“After those crashes, the brain just does weird things,” Shiffrin reflected in an Associated Press interview, describing a mental fog that blurred course lines and sapped her confidence. Her mother, Eileen Shiffrin – a former U.S. Ski Team member turned coach – witnessed the toll firsthand, likening it to the grief-stricken haze Mikaela endured after her father Jeff’s tragic 2020 death. Yet, true to form, Shiffrin emerged from the darkness, channeling offseason training into a hyper-focused regimen. She’s logged unprecedented volume in GS repetitions, bolstering her core strength to better absorb the torque of high-stakes turns, while easing back into super-G with just one tentative start planned in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on December 14.
The calculus is clear: with the Olympics just over a year away – set for February 6-22, 2026 – Shiffrin is prioritizing peak performance over breadth. Downhill, the sport’s rawest test of speed and nerve, carries inherent risks amplified by her recent history. She’s tallied four career downhill wins, part of nine speed-event triumphs that underscore her versatility, but those highs came at a cost. “I need more super-G training days to feel comfortable racing,” she admitted, leaving the door ajar for that discipline if her St. Moritz trial clicks – but only if it aligns with her Olympic timeline. Post-Games? That’s when speed events might reclaim her calendar.
This pared-down approach isn’t without precedent for Shiffrin, who has long dominated the technical side with eight slalom season titles and five overall World Cup crowns. Her provisional 2025-26 schedule packs 16 technical races before the Olympics, kicking off with GS and slalom at Copper Mountain, Colorado, on November 29-30, and weaving through European venues like Mont-Tremblant, Canada, and Špindlerův Mlýn, Czechia. It’s a blueprint for accumulation: more reps, fewer variables, all funneled toward Cortina, where she snagged four medals – including combined gold – at the 2021 World Championships.
Beijing 2022 remains a scar on her Olympic legacy. Arriving as the favorite, Shiffrin endured a medal-less Games, failing to finish slalom and GS before scraping an 18th in downhill and contributing to a fourth-place team finish. “My teammates carried me through that,” she later said, a nod to the support that now fuels her solo charge. At 50-50 odds on Milano Cortina being her swan song – “I don’t see myself competing until 40,” she quipped, glancing sideways at Lindsey Vonn’s comeback – Shiffrin enters the season with quiet optimism. “My confidence is getting better. I feel more comfortable.”
In a sport where one false edge can rewrite a career, Shiffrin’s cuts aren’t concessions – they’re scalpels, carving away the extraneous to hone her blade for glory. As the World Cup opener nears in Soelden, Austria, on October 26, all eyes will be on whether this leaner, meaner Shiffrin can summit her third Olympics unscathed. If history is any guide, the mountain is hers to conquer.
