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Mikaela Shiffrin on the Biggest Risk of Her CareerGetty | Jason Speakman - Getty Images
Mikaela Shiffrin is not new to winning. The 31-year-old is the most-decorated alpine skier in history, and she shows no signs of slowing down.
She is a four-time Olympic gold medalist, 18-time Crystal Globe winner, and has six World Cup titles. At the end of the 2025-2026 season, she set the record for the most slalom wins in a season with nine victories from 10 races. This falls within her already record-breaking stats of 110 World Cup Wins and 168 World Cup finishes. Shiffrin isn’t just good, she’s the greatest of all time.
However, heavy is the head that wears the crown—or rather, the hands that hoist the glittering Crystal Globe.
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With the ski season now in her rear view, Shiffrin tells Women’s Health that she definitely felt the pressure. Although this was her third Olympic Games, she says that did not make a difference when it comes to the outside noise. “You can never really prepare for the sort of external narratives that are shared around you,” she says.
Shiffrin says there’s a certain pressure that comes with being one of the best—something she has come to understand after years at the top of her sport. However, with that is also the feeling of an entire sport on her shoulders, especially during the Olympics, where many fans only see her race every four years.
“One of the most challenging moments was in Cortina, in my hotel room, kind of grappling with how to share the narrative of my life and my journey and ski racing as a sport and try to get that out to people,” she says. “But also at some point it was like, you just have to let it go and do your work because you can't fight these battles with everybody.”
To combat this, Shiffrin decided to make a critical change to improve her mental game. “Something risky from this season was actually bringing my psychologist into my team with coaches and staff,” she says. “My hope was that it would help us to be really aligned and really unified as we headed into this racing season and even into the Olympics.”
She says the process had the exact effect she hoped for, leaving her feeling aligned on all fronts.
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“It paid off a ton, but it was a little bit scary to be that vulnerable with people you work with,” she says. “Do my coaches really want to hear the inner workings of my heart? But in the end, it was helpful.”
Shiffrin says she intuitively had to shed a layer of armor, forcing herself to open up and create the ability to compartmentalize.
“In the end, letting everybody in on what was going on and what happens in my head, especially if things are not going well, was a really important piece to feel really connected and unified,” she says.
Shiffrin notes that one thing that helps her navigate the outside voices is leaning on not only her teammates, but also her competitors.
“In ski racing, it really is like a family,” she says. “Everybody’s really positive, good people, amazing athletes, amazing competitors. It feels really good to show up together with all of your competition knowing that you are in this together.”
In addition to engaging in intense cognitive training to control her mind, Shiffrin also dabbles in some pre-race rituals that are more lighthearted—but still effective.
“I started having like one or two sour gummies at the start,” she says. “My physical therapist saw something that sour things break an anxiety cycle … and I ended up really liking it.”
One thing that won’t change for Shiffrin is that feeling of crossing the finish line. To her, that is always the most memorable moment of any race.
“Maybe it’s because the last year and year before I had injuries, and there were a couple races where I didn’t make it to the finish line and it ended in pain,” she says.
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In November of 2024, Shiffrin crashed during her giant slalom run at the Stifel Killington Cup, resulting in a puncture wound to her abdomen and severe muscle trauma. After surgery and just two months of rest and rehabilitation, she went on to her 100th World Cup in February of 2025.
“So every single time that I’ve crossed the finish line is like, ‘Woo! We made it. We’re here. All of me is here,’” she says.
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