Mikaela Shiffrin tried to play it cool. She really did.
Standing in the finish area in jeans and moon boots, hands stuffed deep in her pockets, the greatest slalom skier of all time kept repeating the same line that instantly became the motto of the day:
“I’m not crying, you’re crying.”
But when Aleksander Aamodt Kilde crossed the line after 685 days away from World Cup racing, the tears came anyway, and the entire ski world sobbed with her.
The Norwegian speed star, sidelined since a horror crash in Wengen in January 2024 that nearly cost him his life, made a surprise return in Thursday’s season-opening super-G at Copper Mountain. Starting with bib 31, fighting rust, fear and a body still healing from a dislocated shoulder, torn calf muscle and a near-fatal infection, Kilde skied into 24th place, 1.25 seconds behind winner Marco Odermatt.
For almost anyone else, 24th would be a quiet result. For Kilde, it was the loudest finish of the young season.
At the bottom, Shiffrin lost the battle with her emotions. Gloves pressed to her face, shoulders shaking, she let the tears flow openly as Kilde dropped his poles and sprinted toward her. The couple collided in an embrace that felt longer than the entire race run, Shiffrin burying her face in his chest while Kilde whispered something only she could hear.
Moments later, still dabbing at her eyes in the mixed zone, Shiffrin delivered the quote that immediately went viral:
“Listen, I’m not crying, you’re crying,” she laughed through fresh tears. “Okay, fine… maybe we’re both crying.”
Kilde, grinning ear-to-ear despite the mid-pack result, admitted the nerves had been brutal.
“My knees were shaking in the start like it was my first World Cup all over again,” he said. “But when I saw Mikaela’s face at the finish… man, that was worth every single dark day in the hospital.”
The 33-year-old revealed he only decided to race at Copper on Tuesday after strong training runs, originally planning a more conservative comeback next week in Beaver Creek. “Why wait?” he shrugged. “If the body says yes, you go.”
Shiffrin, who has endured her own injury nightmares, called it “the best day I’ve had on snow in a long time, and I wasn’t even racing.”
She later posted a simple heart-eyes emoji and the words “I’m not crying, you’re crying” on Instagram, racking up over half a million likes in an hour.
Even stone-faced Marco Odermatt, fresh off his dominant victory, got emotional, wrapping Kilde in a long hug and telling reporters, “Today the podium doesn’t matter. Today we’re all just happy he’s back.”
As the sun set over the Rockies, Kilde and Shiffrin walked hand-in-hand toward the team bus, still stealing glances at each other like teenagers.
Someone in the crowd shouted, “Get a room!”
Shiffrin, finally composed, turned and fired back with a grin:
“We’ve waited 685 days for this moment. We’re allowed to be a little gross.”
And with that, the toughest woman in ski racing wiped away one last tear, laughed, and admitted defeat:
“Okay, fine. I’m crying. Happy now?”
The entire mountain roared back: Yes, Mikaela. We all are.
