Mikaela Shiffrin is returning from the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics with her head held high. The 30-year-old alpine skier ended her Olympic medal drought in style with a gold medal in the women’s slalom event.
The World Cup champion also talked about her mental health before the quadrennial event and why she was initially hesitant to participate in the Winter Olympics, due to the absence of her father.
Mikaela Shiffrin Opens Up About Her Apprehensions Before the Winter Olympics
Following the hard-earned victory in the slalom event, the Olympic champion skier sat down for an interview with CBS News. During the interview, the 30-year-old revealed that she was initially afraid to compete in the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, not because of the crash she suffered in 2024, but because her father was absent. In her words,
“Winning an Olympic medal without him here was terrifying to me. Before I knew that it was in Beijing, I didn’t know that I was scared of that. When I walked away from Beijing, I realized that there was some small bit of relief that I didn’t have to experience a world where I can win an, Olympic medal, and my dad is not alive because you wanted him there.”
For the uninitiated, Shiffrin had lost her father, Jeffrey Shiffrin, in early 2020. Shiffrin allegedly suffered internal injuries to the head, due to which he passed away, leading to the alpine skier taking a short sabbatical in order to cope with the loss.
The world champion further mentioned in the interview about how she was afraid to participate without her father by her side, as she further stated,
“Well, I want him to be alive like, I want him there. I want him on the other side of the phone. I want him there for my mom : I want him there for my family. I just. I don’t want my life without my dad alive. But here we are six years into it, and that’s still. That’s still awful. Like, I work with a psychologist regularly.
“But you know, it was back in, probably I think July, when I first talked to her about these concerns around the Olympics and saying like, ‘I don’t know that I want to win.’ What a weird thing to think about, to be even able to be afraid to win.”
Shiffrin ended her Olympic campaign on a mixed note at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. While she won the slalom event, she finished fourth in the team combined event, despite an early lead with Breezy Johnson. On the other hand, even though she completed the giant slalom race, Shiffrin stood in the eleventh position.
