At 30, Mikaela Shiffrin has 100 World Cup victories, six world championship titles, three Olympic medals, and the undisputed crown as the greatest alpine skier in history. Yet in a candid sit-down with Olympics.com, the American superstar revealed that for years, the one opponent she couldn’t out-ski was fear itself.
“I was terrified every single race,” Shiffrin admitted, her voice steady but eyes distant. “People saw the results and thought it was easy. It never was. My heart would be pounding so hard I could barely breathe at the start gate.”
The confession comes three years after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, where Shiffrin shockingly failed to finish three individual events—an experience that left her questioning everything. “Beijing broke something in me,” she said. “But it also forced me to rebuild stronger.”
Speaking from her home in Edwards, Colorado, Shiffrin opened up about the mental toll of expectation, the grief following her father’s sudden death in 2020, and how therapy, journaling, and small daily rituals helped her rediscover joy on snow.
“I had to make peace with the Olympics,” she explained. “I used to treat every five-ring event like life or death. Now I see them as celebrations—of the work, the journey, the people who got me here.”
The shift in mindset is palpable. After a horrific puncture wound crash in Killington last season threatened to derail her career, Shiffrin returned to claim her historic 100th win in February 2025. She describes the milestone not as a finish line, but as “a checkpoint on a much longer road.”
“I feel wiser,” she smiled. “I’m not chasing records anymore. I’m chasing the feeling of flying down a hill knowing I gave everything—good or bad outcome.”
With the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics looming, Shiffrin says she’s no longer haunted by past failures. “Fear still shows up,” she acknowledged. “But now I greet it like an old friend. ‘Hey, I see you. Let’s ski anyway.’”
As the most dominant skier of her generation prepares for another chapter, one thing is clear: the girl who once raced to prove herself has grown into a woman racing simply because she loves it.
And the mountain has never looked more conquerable.
