Mikaela Shiffrin storms to slalom gold to rewrite her Olympic history

"I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash," Shiffrin said, via Brian Mann of NPR.

"In the end, today, showing up — that was the thing I wanted most. More than the medal. Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable."

From triumph to tragedy

Shiffrin is just 30 years old, but she's been an Olympic fixture for nearly two decades. She made her Games debut at the 2014 games in Sochi and was christened the world's best after winning the slalom event in style. She followed up that strong start with two medals—a gold and a silver—in the 2018 games in Pyeongchang.

From there, though, while Shiffrin dominated skiing's yearly World Cup events, she struggled to make her mark on the Olympic Games. The 2022 Olympic Games were a disaster for Shiffrin: she entered every single alpine event and failed to medal in any of them.

In hindsight, that wasn't exactly surprising. Beijing was unfamiliar territory for everyone, not just Shiffrin, as it wasn't a regular stop on the winter sports calendar. Nobody knew what to expect from its alpine courses, and Shiffrin, an athlete who relies heavily on preparation and routine, was thrown off balance.

“People think we are in control at the Olympics, of the time zone where we travel, when we work out, and how we train and eat,” Shiffrin said, via Matthew Futterman of The Athletic.  “It’s the opposite. None of that is in our control. It’s the least amount of control we have.”

Put on a pedestal by NBC after her strong performances in the previous two Games, Shiffrin's Beijing struggles appeared in sharp contrast to her public persona. The effect was devastating. 

"My relationship with the Olympics is that there are so many people who tune in who maybe don’t take enough care to know more of the backstory and understand enough," she said, via Futterman.

"And there are certainly, I guess, like, repercussions might not be the right word, but let’s go with that for now, for not being able to exceed whatever expectations might be set.”

A question of expectation

Shiffrin isn't the only athlete to fall victim to the Olympic expectation curse. Simone Biles famously struggled with it at the Tokyo Games in 2021, and figure skater Ilia Malinin went through it on an accelerated timeline at these 2026 Games. But Biles returned four years later in Paris to reclaim her Olympic title, and Malinin still managed to win a team gold even though he disappointed in the individual event. 

Biles and Malinin got their Olympic redemption. Shiffrin, for years, remained without it. Her first two races in Milano Cortina left her wanting: a slower-than-expected slalom run in the team combined left her fourth, while a slip-up in the giant slalom left her eleventh.

Not anymore. This strong slalom performance puts Shiffrin right back where she belongs: on top of the Olympic podium as the world's undisputed slalom champion.