For Mikaela Shiffrin, the Olympics are no longer the sole measure of her legacy. The skiing icon, who has rewritten the record books with 108 World Cup wins, enters the 2026 Milano Cortina Games with a new perspective, driven by process over outcome and a desire to find genuine meaning in the two-week global spectacle.
EDWARDS, Colorado — A month after the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Mikaela Shiffrin won her fourth overall title. A year after that, she broke Ingemar Stenmark’s long-standing record for most World Cup victories. Two years after that, she got her 100th World Cup win, establishing a mark that is certain to stand for decades, if not all time.
All this is to say that although the Olympics mean everything to the general public, they are only a piece of Shiffrin’s considerable legacy.
And she’s not quite sure how to square that.
“There’s this external factor that really heightens the importance of the Olympics. Each one that I’ve gone to, I feel like subconsciously I realized that. But was almost naïve to it. Or maybe blind to it a little bit,” Shiffrin, 30, told USA TODAY Sports. “Now I think I consciously realize just how much people care for those two weeks every four years. And I don’t totally know what to do with that.”
This is not because of what happened at the Beijing Olympics, where Shiffrin had a Groundhog Day-esque nightmare. Expected to medal in multiple events, she instead left empty-handed after uncharacteristic did-not-finishes in the slalom, giant slalom and the Alpine combined.
To put that in context, she’d had only two DNFs in the previous three seasons. She had three in 11 days in Beijing. Shiffrin’s personal disappointment was compounded by the torrent of online abuse she received, with trolls flooding her social media accounts to berate and mock her.
As cruel as that was, Shiffrin’s feelings about the Olympics had gotten complicated even before that.
A Career Beyond the Olympic Spotlight
She’s not alone. Winter Olympians, in particular, race at World Cups week in and week out each season and have world championships each year. Many see those as a better gauge, even if they occur when most of the world isn’t watching.
“Everyone here is so focused on the Olympics, but we also all have so many big careers outside of the Olympics,” said Paula Moltzan, who has been on the podium four times this World Cup season. “And so for me, I would like to perform on the Olympic day. But if it doesn’t happen, there’s so many other races in which I can perform and show my best skiing.”
For Shiffrin, the distinction is stark. Her Olympic gold medals in the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and giant slalom in 2018 PyeongChang are monumental career highlights. She also has a silver from the individual combined in 2018, putting her one behind Julia Mancuso’s record for a U.S. woman.
Yet, her drive is rooted in the relentless pursuit of perfection through process. The medals and titles are only a reflection of that. Consistency and longevity are her holy grrails, a point underscored by her recent dominance. She has won all but one slalom race on the World Cup circuit this season and secured her ninth season title, a record for a single discipline.
The Weight of a Single Medal
Shiffrin is determined to find meaning in the Olympic medal, but she acknowledges its unique limitations.
“In a way, an Olympic medal is literally just about the Olympic medal,” she said. “You want it to be a symbol that represents everything. It represents hard work for sure. It’s a symbol of years of dedication and sacrifice and all of these things. But at the end of the day, people talk about other records that I have, or globes that I have, synonymously with a lifetime of dedication and hard work and passion and just being relentless. Who I am as a human produced the ability to achieve these things. And with the (Olympic) medals, it’s ‘Olympic gold medalist’ and that’s it. Just Olympic gold medalist. It’s funny because it’s harder to attach the meaning, that really wholesome meaning to an Olympic medal.”
This philosophical shift was crystallized for her by golfer Scottie Scheffler, who said last summer how fleeting the satisfaction is from a win, even a major one. “It’s such an amazing moment. Then it’s like, ‘OK, what are we going to eat for dinner?’ Life goes on,” Scheffler said.
That’s the kind of attitude Shiffrin wants to channel in Milano Cortina, a place she loves and knows well. She’s earned her confidence through the work she’s put in and the way she’s been skiing this season—she’s looked effortlessly dominant in her most recent races—rather than paying mind to all those things she cannot control.
“You do what you do every day and have full trust in that. You make a decision to commit,” said Karin Harjo, Shiffrin’s head coach. “It sounds easy, but it’s actually very difficult to do, especially when you have the weight of the world and the pressure on you. But she’s getting better at that.”
A New Approach for Milano Cortina
After injuries sidelined her for good portions of the last two seasons, Shiffrin is focused on enjoying her fourth Olympics. She will race the giant slalom, slalom, and team combined in Milano Cortina.
Shiffrin has extended her records of World Cup wins to 108 and podiums to 166. After struggling in giant slalom following the November 2024 crash, she made her first podium in the discipline in two years, finishing third in the final GS race before the Games.
“The moments of winning and triumph and getting a medal and whatever, that’s just such a small, small part of it. Even though you spend all this time working for that thing, the rest of it is what makes up the bulk of life,” Shiffrin said. “That’s what’s worth putting energy into.”
That doesn’t mean she won’t try to be the fastest down the mountain. If she executes her plan, Shiffrin can be happy with her Olympic performance, medal or no medal.
“I’m just going to enjoy this. And I’m going to do the best I can,” she said. “I’m going to train hard and I’m going to focus on the skills I’ve built over a long period of time and I’m just going to stay true to me and focus and put it all on the mountain.”
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