It started with an awkward dinner table, a three-week radio silence, and one very confused Mikaela Shiffrin wondering if the charming Norwegian sitting next to her had just ghosted her forever.
Fast-forward six years, and that same Norwegian, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, is now her fiancé, co-host, and the man she credits with “saving my life on the hardest days.”
In the latest episode of Shiffrin’s brand-new podcast What’s the Point?—dropped Wednesday morning—the alpine power couple finally told the full, unfiltered story of how two World Cup superstars turned rivals into soulmates. And yes, the internet is collectively sobbing.
“It was 2018, World Cup finals in Åre,” Shiffrin recalled, laughing so hard she could barely get the words out. “We’re at the athletes’ dinner, and Aleksander gets sat right next to me. We talked all night. I thought, ‘Okay, this guy is cool.’ Then… nothing. Three weeks of zero messages. I was like, ‘Did I imagine that entire conversation? Did he ghost me?’”
Kilde, grinning sheepishly beside her, jumped in: “I didn’t ghost her! I was just… terrified. She’s Mikaela Shiffrin. I’m thinking, ‘There’s no way she’s into me.’ So I panicked and said nothing.”
The breakthrough came months later at a sponsor photoshoot in Monaco. One coffee turned into hours of talking, then daily texts, then secret weekend getaways squeezed between race schedules. By 2021 they were official—and the ski world lost its collective mind over the ultimate Winter Olympics super-couple.
But the 42-minute episode isn’t all cute origin stories. The two get raw about the darker chapters: Kilde’s near-career-ending crash in Wengen 2024, Shiffrin’s puncture-wound injury in Killington the same season, and how they nursed each other through months of rehab while barely able to walk.
“There were days I couldn’t get out of bed,” Kilde admitted, voice cracking. “Mikaela would just lie there with me, holding my hand, reminding me who I was when I forgot.”
Shiffrin wiped away tears before adding: “People see the wins, the podiums, the Instagram smiles. They don’t see the 3 a.m. panic attacks or the hospital waiting rooms. We’ve literally carried each other—sometimes on crutches.”
Wedding bells? They’re coming. Though no date is set (“We’re waiting until we can both walk down the aisle without limping,” Shiffrin joked), the couple hinted at a small ceremony in Norway or Colorado with “lots of snow and zero cameras.”
They also addressed the baby question that’s been flooding their DMs. “Not yet,” Kilde said firmly. “But when the time is right, absolutely. We both want a little skier—or maybe a little hockey player,” he added with a wink to his Norwegian roots.
The episode ends with Shiffrin reading a letter she wrote to Kilde on the night he proposed in April 2025. “You turned my loneliest sport into the greatest love story I never knew I was allowed to have,” she read, voice trembling. “Thank you for choosing me—every single day.”
Within hours of release, #ShiffrinKilde was trending worldwide, racking up 2.8 million streams and thousands of crying emojis. Even rival Petra Vlhová posted a heart-eyes selfie with the caption: “Goals. Absolute goals.”
As Levi’s slalom lights loom this weekend, one thing is clear: Mikaela Shiffrin will step into the start gate with 100 World Cup wins, seven Levi reindeer, and the unwavering love of the man who finally texted back.
And that, as she says, “is the real victory.”
