Mikaela Shiffrin Cheers On Brother at Leadville 100 MTB

Originally posted on Powder | By Ian Greenwood | Last updated Aug 11, 2025 3:37 PM ET

Mikaela Shiffrin is the best alpine ski racer of all time, but that doesn’t mean she's too busy to cheer on her brother, Taylor, who, last weekend, competed in Colorado's grueling Leadville 100 MTB race.

Mikaela recently posted a series of photos on Instagram from the course’s sidelines. She also wrote a heartfelt message to her brother, “Lots of reasons why I look up to my big brother, but this just might take the cake…”

She described Taylor deciding to compete in the Leadville 100 on a whim and then finishing the 105-mile bike race.

“I’m shookededed…Befuddleded…flabbergastydabbered…,” Mikaela wrote. “Honestly,[Taylor]…you’re pretty much the coolest. I’m certainly inspired.”

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First held in 1994, the Leadville 100 MTB is a prolonged, high-altitude slog with 12,000 feet of elevation gain. It reaches a peak elevation of 12,500 feet and tests competitors with steep descents and climbs.

This year, Kate Courtney placed first among the women, finishing the race in just under seven hours. The men’s winner, Keegan Swenson, took five hours and 45 minutes to blaze through the course.

The 105-mile bike competition is part of the broader Leadville race series, which also includes a similarly brutal trail-running event. Both events are some of the greatest endurance tests in the country.

Mikaela, for her part, is preparing for another Olympic run after a challenging competitive season. In November 2024, she crashed on the Killington, Vermont, giant slalom course, forcing her to take a break as her abdominal muscles recovered.

But Mikaela returned to racing in January 2025 and successfully capped off the winter with a big slalom win during the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Now, she’s spending the summer training for another shot at Olympic glory. Already the winningest alpine racer of all time, she’ll have the chance to add to her Olympic trophy case, which includes three medals.

The upcoming season opens in Soelden, Austria, with a men’s and women’s giant slalom race. The 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics kick off in February.

This article first appeared on Powder and was syndicated with permission.

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