Mikaela Shiffrin can’t catch a break. The most decorated Alpine skiing racer in World Cup history missed out on getting on the podium at the team event by a whisker. Along with Breezy Johnson, she finished 4th, short of third by just 0.06 seconds. Now, Shiffrin has had another disappointing run in the giant Slalom, finishing 11th. However, Shiffrin is not looking too shaken up about it.
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“It was really helpful to get two runs down this hill,” Shiffrin said after the giant slalom. “Of course, slalom is a totally different event and requires a different level of precision and quickness for sure.” Shiffrin hasn’t won an Olympic medal in the last 8 years. The U.S. Alpine skiing star won her most recent Olympic medal at PyeongChang 2018, when she claimed silver in the individual combined event.
In 2026, Milano Cortina is coming with great expectations. However, the finish was an uptick from 2022, where Shiffrin crashed 3 times in 6 races, including giant slalom. Shiffrin has suffered through multiple injuries in the past two seasons, including an MCL strain, left knee strain, and a punctured lung.
She cut back her schedule to focus only on what she is best at for these Olympics, the slalom, giant slalom, and team combined. After her accident in 2024, she had major psychological issues. Shiffrin pulled out of the giant slalom at last year’s Alpine World Championships. She was diagnosed with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. With that backdrop, a ski without a crash at the biggest stage is an absolute win.
“I feel really quite positive, I was pushing both runs,” Shiffrin said. “For sure, I lost some time here and there, but I have been building and pushing, and this is the most I have pushed in a [giant slalom] race all season.” In addition, Shiffrin has not been in the best GS form. Yes, Shiffrin’s 22 career GS victories stand as a record. Yet, she hasn’t won a GS race since late 2023. Breaking that streak at the Olympics was always going to be difficult.
“To be able to stand in the start gate and feel the butterflies and the adrenaline and to turn that into intensity with my skiing and to put on the hill some of my highest level skiing was really exciting,” Shiffrin said. It’s not over yet for Mikaela Shiffrin, she still has the slalom event to break her medal drought.
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Unlike the previous two events, Mikaela Shiffrin will be a favourite at the Slalom races. Giant slalom was always going to be tough. Leading up to the Olympics, Shiffrin was in top Slalom form. She grabbed the World Cup Slalom title for a record 9th time. In her last race before the Games, it was the record-extending 108th of her World Cup career and 71st in slalom. She won by her biggest margin of the 2025-26 campaign. However, the Olympics is a completely different deal.
“I would like to take that excitement into the slalom. I also acknowledge I am in a very different position in slalom to giant slalom and have had very successful races so far this season, so there is a level of wanting to do my skiing justice,” Shiffrin said. “But I am here for the turns, for the skiing in between the start and the finish, and quieting down any other noise is probably the most important thing I can do so I have access to the best skiing I can do.”
In a way, it is working for Mikaela Shiffrin that the Slalom event was scheduled last. She had some time to get into her groove. Now that Shiffrin has had a couple of runs, she could come into her own in the final event. “She maybe just needed to get on the snow in Cortina, feel it out, she hadn’t done the downhill, so that was her first moment on that slope,” TNT Sports pundit Charlie Guest. Shiffrin plans to rest on Monday, then train on Tuesday. She will go for her one final shot on Wednesday.