Mikaela Shiffrin created history at the 2026 Winter Olympics Games in Milan-Cortina by winning a gold medal in Women’s Slalom on Wednesday, February 18. This was the alpine skier’s third Olympic gold medal, notably, her first since 2018, including a disappointing finish at the 2022 Beijing Games. She received love from the entire sports world, including tennis stars such as Coco Gauff and Iga Świątek, through social media.
Let’s take a look at the tennis world’s congratulatory messages following Shiffrin’s historic Olympic feat.
Coco Gauff, Iga Świątek, and Others Send Love to Mikaela Shiffrin After Historic 2026 Winter Olympics Act
Shiffrin first participated in the women’s team combined slalom on February 10, missing the podium by just one place while teaming up with Breezy Johnson. She then finished 11th in the giant slalom earlier, before finally bringing her A game on February 18. She finished the women’s slalom with a combined time of 1:39:10, including both of her runs.
Shiffrin bested the Swiss silver medalist Camille Rast by 1.50 seconds and the bronze medalist Anna Swenn-Larsson from Sweden by 1.71 seconds. This marked the biggest margin in Olympic slalom since 1998, making it a historic event. With this win, she also became the first Winter Olympian to win gold in the same event 12 years apart, with her first being in 2014 in Russia.
The entire tennis world showed love and support to the American right after her historic win. Notably, World No. 2 Świątek immediately posted an Instagram story, capturing herself alongside her television.
She is holding her fists up and is smiling in excitement while her TV captures the three podium finishers of the event. Along with the image, she wrote, “You did it!” while tagging Shiffrin and showing love with emojis.
After the win, Shiffrin shared an Instagram post about how she overcame self-doubt and the backlash from the world to become a three-time Olympic gold medalist. She talked about how she pushed herself to chase, earn, and dream, and about the support she got from her team to ultimately clinch the gold medal.
Tennis celebrities showed love and support to this post, with Gauff commenting, “goat” along with a goat and a medal emoji. Canadian star Bianca Andreescu chimed in, writing, “Wowowowowwow!!!!”
Meanwhile, former women’s doubles World No. 1 Rennae Stubbs wrote a heartfelt message, “I cried reading this! I cried when you crossed the line! I cried because Mikaela, anyone who has competed at a high level knows those feelings! But to conquer them and achieve what u have not only today but everyday is testament to you, your mum, your team and the man that raised you and the work ethic and sacrifices u have made. Congratulations on🥇legend!”
This historic finish ended an eight-year Olympic gold drought for Shiffrin, during which she had to overcome major disappointments. In the 2022 Beijing Games, she could not finish the giant slalom, with just 11 seconds in, while her slalom run ended five seconds in. These disappointing results stunned the entire world, given her reputation and her status as a slalom specialist.
On the tennis side of things, Gauff beat Elise Mertens on the same day in the round of 16 match in Dubai. Right after this match, Filipino star Alexandra Eala took on Sorana Cîrstea to set up a highly anticipated quarterfinal match between Eala and Gauff today, Thursday, February 19.
The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships have taken a major hit due to withdrawals and retirements, with over 25 of the original 43 players having withdrawn or retired so far.
