THE MOST SUCCESSFUL ski racer of all time has achieved what no skier has ever gotten close to doing before. Mikaela Shiffrin has reached a level that few athletes have reached in any sport.
On Feb. 23, the 29-year-old notched her 100th World Cup victory in Sestriere, Italy. The victory marked an incredible surge of strength -- both physical and mental -- following recovery from a serious early-season injury.
When the first-place result came up on Sunday, she lay on the snow, almost in disbelief, before being helped up by teammate Paula Moltzan. Afterwards, Shiffrin cried when she was asked what it meant to her to win after struggling the last few months.
"I don't know that it's possible to dream about a milestone like this," she said after the race in an interview, "It's too big. It's too long. It takes too much. I always dreamed about good turns, step by step and trying to be better tomorrow than I was today. That dream for me is big enough."
In November, Shiffrin was going for her 100th World Cup victory in front of a massive home crowd in Killington, Vermont, when she crashed violently in the second run of the giant slalom race, sliding at high speed through a gate and sustaining a deep puncture (likely from either the gate or her ski pole) to her abdomen. The crash tore her oblique muscle, required surgery and forced her into a long hiatus from racing at home in Edwards, Colorado.
"You're racing at your limit. There's fine margins in this sport," she told ESPN after the injury, following surgery that involved cleaning out the wound and attaching a drainage device. "We have to be on the limit. Those crashes do happen. If I was just a few feet lower or a few feet higher, I might have missed the gate entirely. There's all sorts of reasons when you're racing at your limit and it's a difference between a couple centimeters of actually crashing like that or having a winning run."
A week or two after her injury, Shiffrin did not have the strength to sit up in a chair. She felt as if the muscles in the right side of her body were completely disconnected and would not fire. Simply the act of getting out of bed was an extended ordeal. Laughing, coughing or sneezing brought on sharp pain. She wouldn't have imagined she'd be back in the start gate so soon, much less winning.
"One of the biggest takeaways from this injury is resilience, being relentless in how I approach the recovery, how I approach my training. It's like putting your head down and being able to do the work, grind it out, but also being able to bite off what you can chew," she said after several months of recovery, in January. "At the time, I was in the thick of it. It was hard to see the progress I was making when I was in the moment. Looking back at it now, that progress is undeniable. It's so powerful to look back at that."
Shiffrin spent the next several weeks making step-by-step progress. She started out walking slowly and gingerly, then a bit faster. She got back to the gym for some weightlifting and strength training, then finally made her way back to the slopes to free ski and test how the impact on her body would feel cranking her skis around gates. A few days before returning to racing, Shiffrin said that winning -- taking another crack at that 100th victory -- was pretty much off the table.
"Right now, 100 is not really on my radar," she said. "I'm focused on making a successful turn, which means coming back to racing with strong form, good fitness level and good skiing. That doesn't necessarily mean winning just yet. I don't really know where I stand compared to the other athletes at this point in the season. I feel so lucky that I'm able to make a return to racing in the same season as my injury. It could have been a lot worse. It was about one millimeter from being an internal organ puncture situation. That would have life-threatening, catastrophic. Instead, I'm eight weeks down the road looking at making a return and feeling physically strong again. This is something to soak in and cherish."
She skied notably cautiously in the World Cup slalom in Courchevel, France, on Jan.30, landing 10th place. She then moved on to compete in the 2025 world championships in Saalbach, Austria, notching a fifth place in the slalom. Struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder from her crash, the last time she'd competed in giant slalom, Shiffrin opted out of the world championships giant slalom. But after encouragement from U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson, who had just become world downhill champion and with whom Shiffrin has raced since childhood, the duo managed to clinch gold in the team combined event, Shiffrin blazing ahead to win the slalom portion and secure the win.
The gold was Shiffrin's 15th career world championship medal, matching the record set in the 1930s by German skier Christl Cranz.
"This was an amazing day for me up there, nerve-wracking because Breezy did her job just spectacularly this morning," said Shiffrin after the race. It was so much fun to watch all these days, day in day out, she has been executing. ... So, really, really unbelievable."
THIS, OF COURSE, is not the first time Shiffrin has proven her resilience.
Two years ago, she eclipsed the World Cup record (86 wins) previously held by Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark. Shiffrin landed her first World Cup podium when she was only 15, her first victory at 17. She once won a World Cup slalom race by more than 3 seconds -- the largest margin in women's slalom history. She has collected 14 World Championship medals and three Olympic medals: two gold and one silver.
But her last Olympics proved to be a downturn in Shiffrin's otherwise rocket-like career trajectory. Competing in six events, Shiffrin failed to finish the first two races, her two strongest disciplines. She crashed in the first run of the giant slalom, then skied off-course five gates into the slalom, her best event. The next two races were speed events -- super G and downhill.
While Shiffrin hadn't had as much experience or success in these disciplines, she had won both in the World Cup. She notched a ninth and 18th, respectively. She then took another DNF in the Olympic combined race, skiing off-course in the slalom leg.
The entire set of performances were highly uncharacteristic of Shiffrin. In the four years leading up to the 2022 Games, Shiffrin had posted only two DNFs. The unprecedented low point was possibly fueled by emotions, including a coaching changeup and grief over the loss of her father, who passed suddenly in an accident almost exactly two years before the 2022 opening ceremonies.
"You can see how easily it goes wrong and how hard it is to actually make it to the finish with a fast time. I'm grateful for how many times I've been able to do that," Shiffrin said. "I've had plenty of luck in my career."
The next Olympics are set for next February in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, a place where she has glimpsed some of her highest and lowest moments. Last year, Shiffrin suffered a crash and knee injury on the Cortina slope during the World Cup downhill, effectively ending her season and preventing her from retaining the World Cup overall title. But she has also landed several podiums at the Italian venue, including four back-to-back medals at the 2021 world championships. Shiffrin is looking forward to reminding the world what she's capable of while on her sport's most prominent stage. She's also looking forward to a Winter Games without the challenges of the pandemic.
"Not having the same situation with Covid, how limiting, sterile and different that environment was to be in, on top of being in a pressure-full Olympic environment, that's certainly something I hope to not experience again," she told ESPN. "Being in Cortina, that opens a whole world of comfort level. It's a regular stop on the World Cup. I've been there a handful of times in my career. That familiarity is something I'm looking forward to. My goal around these big events is to come in with a level of comfort and security with my skiing and preparation, so I can enjoy being there. ... I want to put out my best skiing, be part of a great show. I hope to be able to perform at my best on that global stage."
SHIFFRIN HAS GATHERED a massive social media following with 1.4 million on Instagram alone, not just because of her skiing prowess, but because of her authentic, somewhat shy personality and extracurricular talents. She has described herself as an introvert but has showcased her skills for dancing, singing and playing guitar, also posting the reality of her experience as a human being -- deliriously (and hilariously) waking up from surgery in a hospital bed, heartfelt tribute posts to her father and silly couples' moments with fianc and fellow ski champion Aleksander Kilde Aamodt.
She is reluctant to admit her role in bringing her sport into the spotlight, rendering it one of very few in the world where viewers are more interested in the women's side than the men's.
"I'm grateful to be part of this generation of athletes who are having such an impact on women's ski racing," Shiffrin said. "It's been quite a few years that I've been one of the top athletes in that group, but it doesn't come without its challenges. It's an honor to be one of those athletes making a difference in the sport. I guess I sort of look around and see all the enthusiasm that does exist for ski racing and all I want to do is help find a way to give more people access to the sport and make it something that's more viable for more people."
Shiffrin partners with the Share Winter Foundation, a nonprofit aimed at providing snowsports opportunities to youth across America, particularly those in urban and rural areas. In honor of her 100th World Cup victory, Shiffrin will work with Share Winter to raise $100,000 for ski and snowboard programs for youth who otherwise would not have access to these sports.
"Simply being outdoors and in the mountains, being able to experience something adventurous and good for the soul, your mind, your body and your spirit, it's such a beautiful thing," she said. "A sport that has given so much to me, it's a time in my career when I'm really cognizant of how much I can give back. If it's bringing a few more fans to the sport, then that's just incredible."
