Mikaela Shiffrin, the American alpine skiing star, has faced a rocky beginning to her 2026 Winter Olympics journey. Arriving as a top contender for gold, Shiffrin took on both the team combined and giant slalom events. Teaming up with Breezy Johnson, she narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish in the team event and later placed 11th in the giant slalom.
For Shiffrin, this marks a challenging and unexpected start to her fourth Olympic appearance.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s Next Competition At The Olympics
Shiffrin’s previous Olympic outing at Beijing 2022 also fell short of her high expectations. Despite entering six alpine skiing events, she finished only two, with four disappointing. Yet, she transformed that setback into motivation, roaring back to become the most decorated World Cup skier in history.
Shiffrin is now scheduled to compete next in the slalom event, the discipline in which she dominates most out of any other event. The event will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 18, with the first run at 4 a.m. ET and second at 7:30 a.m. ET in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Live coverage of the event will air on USA Network, NBC, and Peacock, with Shiffrin expected to be in the top group given her World Cup slalom performances.
Shiffrin burst onto the Olympic scene with slalom gold at Sochi 2014, a dream debut. After dominating the 2025-26 season with seven wins in eight slalom races, she is determined to recapture that golden form and turn her current Olympic campaign around.
Shiffrin On Her Giant Slalom Performance
Shiffrin’s journey with the giant slalom has been an emotional rollercoaster. She boasts 22 World Cup victories and Olympic gold from PyeongChang 2018, but a devastating crash at Killington in November 2024 left her with a serious abdominal injury and muscle trauma, forcing her off the slopes for over two months and triggering PTSD symptoms.
In an interview after her performance in the giant slalom at the Milan Games, Shiffrin made her feelings known on her performance:
“I think it went better, sort of, if I had expectations. Both runs I felt I pushed really hard from the start. I was like sending it down the hill and for sure, obviously, I’m three-tenths off the podium. You can say Federica just owned the day.”
During the conversation, Shiffrin remained optimistic, reflecting on her two-year recovery and expressing genuine excitement about what the future holds for her in the giant slalom.
