As the alpine skiing World Cup season begins this weekend in Soelden, Austria, Mikaela Shiffrin is taking a measured approach to her preparations for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina. For Shiffrin, the key to Olympic success lies not in fixating on the Games but in maintaining consistency throughout the World Cup season.
Shiffrin, whose 101 World Cup victories make her the most successful skier in history, believes that peaking specifically for the Olympics is challenging given its mid-season timing. “There’s not a lot you can do in our sport to peak for a big event like the Olympics or world championships,” she said earlier this week. “It falls directly in the center of our season, just weeks if not days after our last World Cup competition.”
Instead of targeting the Olympics as the sole focus, Shiffrin emphasized the importance of steady performance across the season. “The more consistently you perform through the World Cup season, the more you will have momentum, some level of competence—confidence and competence—to bring into the Games,” she explained.
This approach does not diminish the Olympics’ significance for Shiffrin, who has experienced both triumph and heartbreak at the Games. She won slalom gold in Sochi in 2014 and giant slalom gold in Pyeongchang in 2018, but left the 2022 Beijing Olympics without a medal after failing to finish her key events. Yet, Shiffrin cautions against making the Olympics the sole priority, warning that an all-or-nothing focus on those few races could lead to disappointment.
As she launches her season in Soelden, Shiffrin’s strategy is clear: build momentum through consistent World Cup performances to arrive at the Milano-Cortina Olympics in peak form, ready to compete on the world’s biggest stage.
