After recently winning bronze in the super-G and gold in the alpine combined at Cortina 2021, American alpine ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin became the most decorated American athlete in Alpine World Ski Championships history. She is only 26 years old but has already a career full of firsts and achievements, including three overall World Cup victories, two Olympic gold medals, and six World Championship titles.
Born in Vail, Colorado, skiing has been part of her life from a very young age, with both her parents being competitive ski racers. She explained, “I just fell in love with the sport when I started to ski gates. Once I was allowed to start training gates around 6 years old, then I really fell in love with it.” And the love never faded. At 15 years old, in 2011, she made her World Cup debut in a giant slalom in the Czech Republic.
Few years later, at age 18, she became the youngest woman in American history to win a World Championship and the youngest athlete in history- male or female- to win an Olympic slalom gold medal in Sochi.
Over the years, she added several records to the list. She was the first athlete to achieve World Cup wins in all 6 FIS Alpine events, the first to win 17 World Cup races in a single season, and the first to win 4 consecutive World Champion titles in a discipline (slalom).
Now ramping up for the 2022 Olympic Games, her recent success is even more remarkable after returning to ski racing competition from a 10-month break, due to the death of her father, a back injury, and the global pandemic.
“After many of my victories, I hear people asking me these questions: 'What else is there to win?' And I want to shout, 'What do you mean, what else? There's so much else!” she said.