"VAN" (Sports Desk - 19.02.2026) :: “You are supposed to win.” “You are supposed to be perfect.” It is under such crushing weight of expectations that superstar athletes like the USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin, the most successful alpine skier of all-time, perform. And the pressure is even more overwhelming on this grand stage that is the Olympics.
Wednesday’s women’s slalom was heavily hyped as Shiffrin’s last chance to win a medal at Milano Cortina 2026, and the 30-year-old destroyed the field to win her first gold in eight years in her signature event in 1:39.10, 1.50 seconds ahead of Camille Rast of Switzerland (1:40.60) who won the silver medal. The bronze medal went to Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson (1:40.81).
DESPITE PRESSURE OR NERVES In the first run, featuring 64 gates and 63 turning gates, Shiffrin attacked the technical course set up by Austrian Klaus Mayrhofer with fluidity and precision to finish in first place. Then she put in another strong performance in the second run, despite stepping into the start gate just after two medal prospects before her (Lena Duerr of Germany and Cornelia Oehlund of Sweden) endured the ruthlessness of the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.
"Through a lot of discussions with my psychologist and my mom and my team, everything we said was that, despite pressure or nerves, I want to feel this skiing," said Shiffrin.
"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."
THE FEAR OF DISAPPOINTMENT In episode 9 of her podcast, What’s the Point with Mikaela Shiffrin, which was published two days before the Opening Ceremony of these Games, Shiffrin had revealed her “fear of disappointment” heading into Milano Cortina 2026 - a feeling that stemmed from her medal drought four years ago in Beijing. “I think it’s unavoidable because there are so many eyes on the event - people who don’t have any concept of what you do outside these couple of weeks - and I did experience a very dark side of that level of viewership because of Beijing and I can’t unexperience.”
Her disastrous Beijing 2022 outing was riddled by the dreaded DNF (did not finish), two of which were recorded in the first run of both the giant slalom and slalom events.
RELIEF AT THE FINISH LINE In Cortina, nothing had gone according to plan for Shiffrin before today - from her uncharacteristically slow slalom in the women's combined, which cost her and teammate Breezy Johnson a spot on the podium, to her 11th-place finish in the giant slalom.
But she was still considered the hot favourite on Wednesday, having secured a record ninth World Cup series title in slalom three weeks ago with two races remaining. She held her nerves and delivered. One could sense her relief at the finish line and in the hug she shared with her mum, Eileen.
Shiffrin holds the record for 71 World Cup wins in slalom, including seven of eight slaloms this season - finishing second in the only race she did not win. Her dominance in the discipline is indescribable but sometimes the slopes can be unforgiving and Shiffrin knows this all too well.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL RECOVERY Her recovery process following the “puncture wound to the right side of her abdomen” and “severe muscle trauma” which she suffered in November 2024 during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, was both physical and mental. “I realized that I needed to give attention to my mental health,” she wrote in The Players’ Tribune last year. “I came to understand that winning races, or even something as significant as winning for the 100th time and accomplishing something no one else has ever done … that stuff is great, of course, but what does it really mean if my mental health is suffering and I’m struggling to do something that I previously loved? Getting there mentally, though, to that place, that perspective … It has been a process. It’s not like flipping a switch.”
Mikaela Shiffrin's mother Eileen recently revealed how her daughter navigated grief following the death of her father Jeff in February 2020, explaining in an episode of Adidas' Illuminated docuseries that was released on 5 February that she didn’t think her daughter would ever ski again.
Shiffrin has now captured her third Olympic gold (fourth medal overall) - 12 years after winning her first Olympic gold in slalom as a 17-year-old - to add to her record total on 108 World Cup wins.
VLHOVA RETURNS Defending champion Petra Vlhová from Slovakia was satisfied with her 20th place finish, having only returned to competition following the severe injury she suffered in giant slalom at her home World Cup in Jasná on January 20, 2024. The women's slalom event at Milano Cortina 2026 was only her second race back. The first was in the Team Combined also in Cortina.
RAST'S SILVER The 26-year-old Swiss Camille Rast, who has been Shiffrin's most consistent challenger this season, with one World Cup win, three second-place and one third-place, claimed her first medal in two Olympic Games.
A DREAM COME TRUE Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson, 34, who is competing in her fourth (and last) Olympic Games, has finally secured her first Olympic medal to add to her 14 World Cup slalom podiums, including two victories, and silver at the 2019 World Championships in Åre. "It's adream come true," she said.
Cr-AIPS
Responses
Leave your comment