Mikaela Shiffrin has her best chance to conquer Olympic demons

Few athletes in any winter sport can match what Mikaela Shiffrin has accomplished. The American superstar has a record-setting 108 World Cup victories to her name, the most ever by an alpine skier.

Shiffrin also has won eight world championships across multiple events, showcasing a level of sustained excellence that has redefined the sport. By virtually every measurable standard, Shiffrin is one of, if not the greatest, skier ever.

And yet, the Olympics have remained the most complicated chapter of her career. There have been periods of success on the grandest stage for the Vail, Colorado native, but also bitter disappointments.

Shiffrin burst onto the Olympic stage at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, capturing slalom gold at just 18 years old. The performance felt like the beginning of a dynasty. 

Four years later, at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, she added giant slalom gold and an alpine combined silver, reinforcing her reputation as a generational talent built for the sport’s biggest moments.

Then came Beijing. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Shiffrin arrived as one of the faces of the Games, widely expected to collect multiple medals in the six events she was set to compete in. Instead, she suffered a stunning series of early exits that shocked the skiing world. The results stood in sharp contrast to her unmatched World Cup success, shifting the conversation to what many framed as Olympic demons.

The early days of the 2026 Winter Olympics have only amplified that tension. Shiffrin’s start has not been disastrous, but her performance has been a slight disappointment by her standards. 

Specifically in the women's combined event, where Breezy Johnson recorded the fastest time in the downhill portion, Shiffrin's 15th-place finish in the slalom saw the duo land in fourth. 

Shiffrin next competed in the giant slalom, with an outside shot at a medal, but finished eleventh overall. 

The four-time Olympian will now get another shot at her signature event: the slalom. And few athletes enter any Olympic race with a clearer path to reclaiming their narrative.

Shiffrin is still the prohibitive favorite in this event, having won seven out of eight slalom races during the 2025-26 World Cup season. Wednesday ultimately marks more than a medal opportunity for the all-time great. 

It is a chance to remind the world that her legacy was never defined by a single Games. A clean, commanding slalom performance would not just add hardware but also rewrite the emotional arc of Shiffrin's Olympic career. 

Regardless of what happens, the 30-year-old is still a legend of the sport and an inspiration to millions, but this would be the cherry on top of a phenomenal career.