Mikaela Shiffrin, the winningest ski racer in history, is still searching for her first Olympic medal in a staggering 8 years. Her performance so far has been underwhelming at best. In women’s combined, she cost them the bronze medal, finishing 15th, as the lead her teammate Breezy Johnson gave her disappeared in thin air. In giant slalom, Shiffrin was better but not by much. She finished in 11th place but was off the podium by ten-tenths of a second. The upward graph has spiked as her first run in the slalom event has shown what she is made of.

Shiffrin was considered the favourite at Slalom.  71 of Shiffrin’s record 108 World Cup wins have come in the slalom that is more than any skier in any discipline ever. This season, she has won six of seven starts and already clinched her ninth slalom Crystal Globe. In the first run, she asserted her dominance.

It was as close to perfect as it can be. “This is not Schifrin during the team event, where he just looked frozen out of the gate,” the broadcaster said on air. With a time of 47.13, Shiffrin currently leads the 20 skiers in the first slalom run, .82 of a second ahead of Germany’s Lena Duerr.
“Mikaela Shiffrin so dominant during that first slalom run the Italian broadcasters clapped,” wrote AP writer Will Graves. After the run, Shiffrin said (via Steve Futterman),  “It was a really a good run. For me, it felt really clear. I felt pretty excited. It’s hard not to be….A little bit of butterflies to be sure. But I feel prepared to take on the nervousness.”

There were still several skiers yet to do their first run, but they were lower-ranked athletes unlikely to challenge Shiffrin’s time. However, the nervousness was expected. She has sustained that level of success even while facing the challenges of serious injury, PTSD, and an all-consuming grief that followed the sudden death of her father in 2020.

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“It was a week she couldn’t even get out of bed. She couldn’t eat. She couldn’t drink anything and lost a lot of weight,” said Shiffrin’s mother, Eileen. “I didn’t think Mikaela would ever ski again. I don’t think she thought she would either.” Her performance so far has been severely criticised. So when she finally found her footing after persevering through all that, some ‘butterflies’ are natural. Even for someone who has won countless times before. Now she is in pole position to grab the elusive medal, and it could even be the gold.

Mikaela Shiffrin’s First Run Historic As She Goes For Gold

There have been multiple narratives around Mikaela Shiffrin and her Olympic caliber. “Serious psychological issues and problems for Shiffrin,” a commentator said during her 2022 Beijing Olympics failure. One failure meant the slalom gold she captured in Sochi in 2014 and two more medals she brought home from PyeongChang four years later didn’t seem to matter as much, outwardly anyway. Now, she has proved herself with a record-setting first run.

“If Mikaela Shiffrin’s current lead (.82) holds (it should), it will be the largest first-run lead in an Olympic women’s slalom since 1960,” wrote Nick Zaccardi, a NBC reporter.

Slalom was a perfect opportunity for Mikaela Shiffrin to break the drought. Conditions were suitable as the sloppy, wet snow of her first slalom run was gone (per the Athletic). She capitalized on a crisp, sunlit morning, ideal conditions for speed and clear sightlines. Now she heads into the 7:30 a.m. ET second run with a strong advantage, as the fastest combined time will decide the winner.