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USA's Mikaela Shiffrin celebrates after winning the women's slalom event during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo on February 18, 2026. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP via Getty Images)
TIZIANA FABI via Getty Images
MILAN — Problem? What problem? Mikaela Shiffrin reminded the world exactly why she’s the most decorated skier in history on Wednesday, winning gold at the slalom event to end a frustrating Olympic medal drought. And she did so with absolute authority, winning by 1.5 seconds.
Shiffrin began the day in dominating fashion. In her first run, Shiffrin — so often tentative these Games — looked like the championship skier she is every week except Olympics ones. She posted a time of 47.13, a stunning 0.82 ahead of her nearest competitor, Germany’s Lena Duerr.
“At first there were some butterflies and some nervous energy,” she said after her first run. “But I have big energy today. Just focusing on the gates between the start and the finish.”
That margin ended up being more than enough for her to stay atop the podium. In her second run, Shiffrin started strong and cruised smoothly to a gold medal, not risking anything, not taking her foot off the throttle. Switzerland’s Camille Rust took silver, while Sweden’s Anna Larsson Swenn took bronze.
Just before Shiffrin pushed off, a grim omen: Duerr clipped the very first gate, an instant disqualification at the very beginning of the race. But Shiffrin shrugged off that image and skied with confidence and determination right to another gold medal.
At the bottom of the hill, she sobbed beneath her goggles, relief coming after the disaster four years ago in Beijing.
In recent years, the Olympics had bedeviled Shiffrin, who has amassed more World Cup victories — 108 — than any skier in history, male or female. She won in the Czech Republic just days before the start of the Milan Cortina Games.
Shiffrin won two golds and one silver medal in Sochi (2014) and Pyeongchang (2018). But when Beijing came around four years ago, she failed to even finish in three of her events, and did not medal. A crushing wreck in Killington in 2024 further affected Shiffrin from a mental perspective, and the struggles in the opening days of these Olympics only added to her burden.
In the team event, Shiffrin’s fellow Team USA skier Breezy Johnson set the pace with the fastest time in the downhill portion of the competition. Shiffrin, a slalom expert, needed only to hit her personal marks in her half of the competition in order to medal. But she struggled with a tentative run, and she and Johnson finished off the podium. (The lone bright side of that: Shiffrin’s poor run opened the door for teammates Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan to claim bronze.)
Several days later, in the Giant Slalom event, Shiffrin again skied well but not well enough. She finished 11th, 0.92 seconds behind gold medal winner Federica Brignone of Italy.
Shiffrin attempted to make sense of her struggles on social media, posting “Olympic Reflections” that seemed like she was trying to head off criticism of her performance. “May we all champion one another, tread lightly on what we don’t fully comprehend, and have the fortitude to keep showing up,” she wrote.
Olympic Reflections Incoming
Over the past few days, some incredible things have happened…just to name a few:
•I had a really productive slalom training session, working through some of the variables I found challenging during team combined (always learning )
…cont. below pic.twitter.com/2pGnndSrIc
— Mikaela Shiffrin(@MikaelaShiffrin) February 13, 2026
Just before the giant slalom competition, she posted that she was feeling “an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I simply get to be here, after everything” — referencing the Killington wreck.
The night before the slalom event, Shiffrin posted a photo of herself with only the caption “See you soon.”
Whatever she did differently, it worked. And Shiffrin now has her fourth Olympic medal.
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