There is no snow to be found in Paris, but Olympic star Mikaela Shiffrin was exactly where she wanted to be.
Throughout these Summer Games, Shiffrin has been one of Team USA’s biggest supporters. From cheering on Simone Biles on the vault to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the 400m hurdles, the winningest skier in the history of the World Cup is (in some ways) just like us: a fan.
“I loved watching all of the women compete,” Shiffrin said of the gymnasts. “I loved that, from the start, they were just on a mission. But it’s still not without mistakes, not without nerves. It was such a perfect balance of vulnerability and confidence and resilience.
“It was just incredible to watch. After a couple of tough Games with COVID-19 and no fans and no family, and the tough atmosphere from the last four years. It’s just been really, really cool to see this on TV and then come here and experience it in person.”
In Paris, Shiffrin has been drawing motivation from the performances she’s seeing first-hand — inspiration that she intends to carry with her to the 2026 winter Games in Milano Cortina.
“Watching athletes compete at the top of their game at the highest level of competition is just really awe-inspiring no matter what,” Shiffrin said. “And Simone, she’s just gone through so much publicly, and that’s not something that everyone can relate to. Every success you have is public and then every failure is incredibly public as well. And there’s also very few failures. So when it happens, it’s like, ‘Oh my God, this is the end of the world.’”
In her three Olympic appearances, Shiffrin has won two gold medals and one silver. But her success extends far beyond the Olympic stage. In March of 2023, Shiffrin surpassed Ingemar Stenmark’s record with her 87th World Cup victory — a mark that had stood for 34 years. Her tally of 54 World Cup slalom race wins is the most by a skier in a single discipline. She is a five-time overall World Cup champion and seven-time world champion.
Like Biles, Shiffrin is no stranger to having her successes — and failures — broadcast live for the world to see. During the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Shiffrin did not finish three of the six events in which she competed, and she left the Games without a medal.
One of her most profound takeaways from the experience has been salient in her journey forward.
You can fail and not be a failure.
Watching Biles compete reminded Shiffrin about the importance of perspective in sports. At the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Biles withdrew from most of her events due to a case of the twisties. And now, here she is at the peak of her sport — at another Olympics leading the Americans to gold in the team event and winning gold in the individual all-around competition.
“The biggest takeaway from watching her compete again is, ‘No matter what, it’s not the end of the world,'” Shiffrin said. “What we’re doing here is an opportunity. It’s incredible. It can be fun. It’s definitely stressful. There are nerves. There’s excitement. There’s disappointment. There’s triumph as well. But for most of us competing at the Olympics, it’s not life or death and it is not the end of the world. Whether you succeed or fail.”
With time, Shiffrin says she has learned that the shortcomings are just as important to the story as the triumphs.
“You walk away from your greatest success and your biggest disappointments. And you’re like, ‘It was all just part of it.’ So, for me, watching Simone was like confirming what I’ve started to realize over the years.”
Shiffrin hopes to harness the inspiration and mindset of these Summer Games when she competes in Milano Cortina for the 2026 Winter Games.
Due to the lack of COVID-19 restrictions, Shiffrin explained that the preparation alone for Milano Cortina will be much easier compared to the complicated logistics involved in planning for Beijing.
“There was equipment testing with the skis and bindings and boots that we were trying to do without having ever skied on the snow or knowing what the conditions were,” Shiffrin said. “We were trying to, sort of, predict what we were going to see based off weather patterns. And when you go there, you can’t just adjust things at the factory, like we normally can.”
Shiffrin explained that Team USA was also told to bring completely different devices than what they normally use. The athletes therefore had to set up new iPads or phones so that they could stay connected to home.
Meanwhile, Milano Cortina is a stop on the World Cup circuit, and therefore a place that Shiffrin and her fellow competitors are supremely familiar.
“I actually think we’re going to have more fan support in Cortina than what I’ve experienced at an Olympic Games so far,” Shiffrin said.
Shiffrin also thinks that Milano Cortina’s accessibility will make a big difference in the fan participation — and as a result, will enhance the athlete experience.
“It’s one of the places where we get more support,” Shiffrin said. “So I think that’s going to be potentially a new experience. I’ve been to three Olympics, but I think this is going to be something I haven’t quite experienced yet.”
Shiffrin says she would be “over the moon” to win another medal in Milano Cortina. But more than anything, she wants to enjoy herself.
Shiffrin recalls that after winning gold in Sochi in 2014, she went on a whirlwind media tour in New York City and then few back to Europe to compete on the World Cup circuit the following weekend. Because she won in Sochi, Shiffrin entered PyeongChang 2018 with more expectations. And then Beijing 2022 happened.
As she prepares for her fourth Games, Shiffrin hopes to channel the naivete of her pre-Sochi mindset.
“The more I have raced in Olympics, the more I realized what expectations there are,” Shiffrin said. “And I would love to get almost back to the mindset where I realize what’s out there, I realize what’s being said, but I can personally be in my own little bubble with my team, and we can enjoy it.
“We care and we’re there to do a job and we’re enjoying doing that job. And that’s when I race my best. That’s the feeling I like to have and the only reason I’m still doing this is because I’ve had enough moments over the last few years where I’m liking the competition. I feel like that would be a headspace I want to be in for the Games.”
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