Mikaela Shiffrin did not need a long interview to describe where she is heading into the new alpine season. A few short posts did it for her.
On September 23 she posted a clip with the caption: “Weeeee…T-minus 31 days, but who’s counting?!” followed by a shy-and-excited emoji stack and ski and mountain icons. Six days later she followed it with a simple countdown: “🔜 @fisalpine World Cup kickoff ⏳.” The tone was light, a little giddy, and completely on-brand.
That countdown sits next to a quieter note. In a separate post, the three-time Olympic champion called waking up to snow-capped peaks and an alpine lake “a massive privilege” and said she was “very grateful.” It was not a race recap or a training report. It was a pause. The same athlete counting down the days to the World Cup opener was also stopping to look at the landscape that made the sport possible.
The contrast is the story.
Shiffrin has spent the last stretch of the off-season and preseason on the usual circuit: strength work at home after turning her garage into a private gym she said made her “so happy,” then on-snow camps in the Southern Hemisphere, including Chile. She has posted from the road, from a day off at ski camp, and even from a winding mountain drive that left her asking who else would get motion sickness on that stretch. None of it was framed as a manifesto. It was just the texture of the job.
The World Cup season typically opens in late October. For Shiffrin, that means another long winter of slalom, giant slalom, and whatever speed events she chooses to add. She already has the résumé: record World Cup wins, multiple overall globes, and a third Olympic gold from Milano Cortina 2026. The preseason posts do not sell urgency. They sell appetite.
That is why the “who’s counting?” line landed. It is not false modesty. It is the sound of someone who has done this for nearly two decades and still gets a little rush when the calendar flips toward the first start gate. The gratitude post keeps it from becoming only hype. The mountains are still the point, not just the backdrop.
Fans have seen both versions of Shiffrin before: the relentless technician and the person who will admit a mountain road made her queasy. This week she put them in the same feed. Countdown. Privilege. Chile snow. A garage gym. A day off that still looks like work.
If that is the preseason vibe, it is a simple one. She is ready enough to joke about the days left. She is still paying attention to the view. And she is not pretending the next few months will be easy.
“I’ve been chasing snow around the world for almost 20 years now,” she wrote in a recent short. “110 World Cup wins later… it doesn’t get any easier.” The new posts suggest she is fine with that. The season is close. The peaks are still there. Who’s counting? She is. She just does not need to say it twice.
