Alpine skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin discusses post-Olympic life, her ‘inspo’ Kylie Kelce, and more
Shiffrin, a three-time gold medalist, sees the resemblance but thinks Kelce is “generally cooler in pretty much every sense of life.”
When you think of the term GOAT when it comes to sports, you may think of names like Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James. But there’s another name that needs to be included on that list — and that’s three-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin.
Shiffrin, 31, is the most decorated Alpine skier in history, becoming the only Alpine skier to reach 100 World Cup wins.
During her career, Shiffrin has competed in four Winter Olympic Games — earning three gold medals and one silver. The Colorado native is an eight-time World Championship gold medalist, six-time overall World Cup champion, nine-time World Cup slalom discipline title winner, and 2023 ESPY winner for Best Female Athlete.
However, this didn’t come without setbacks. During the 2022 Winter Olympics, held in Beijing, Shiffrin was favored to win gold in at least three of her events before recording a Did Not Finish in slalom and giant slalom — failing to reach the podium.
Four years later, at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, Shiffrin won gold in the slalom event, becoming the oldest American woman to win Olympic Alpine gold. She also was the youngest American to win gold at 18 years old, during her first Olympic appearance in 2014.
After the Winter Olympics, Shiffrin sat down with The Inquirer to discuss her experience in Cortina, what she learned from Beijing, post-Olympic life, and more …
Q: Growing up, did you think that your name was going to be tied into being the GOAT of Alpine skiing?
A: No. Well, growing up, we didn’t really have the term GOAT. Maybe people would talk about Muhammad Ali was the best ever, but it wasn’t such a widely used term. I feel like I kind of grew into this. I’m like, ‘That’s what people are calling people now?’ I didn’t really have much expectations.
Q: What did you learn from the 2022 Olympics that helped you with this past Olympics?
A: Something that I gained from 2022 was realizing actually how full of a life I have outside of the Olympics. In the Olympics, it does feel like this kind of vortex. You feel like it’s sort of the biggest thing that’s happening, which it is. But when you exit that, you realize you have relationships, you have family, there are these other things that you’re really looking forward to after Beijing.
[I learned] that your value is placed on multiple areas of your life and things that you care about and the Olympics is just one slice of that pie. I probably didn’t fully realize that until we got to Cortina this year. At the end of the day, I still wanted to meet this moment, and I still wanted to win gold. You just compartmentalize those things.
Q: At the latest Olympic Games, you put Post-it Notes around your mirror with a lot of messages to yourself. When did you start doing that, and why?
A: One thing about the Olympics that I’m pretty open about is the fear that I feel, fear of criticism, the potential for downside is pretty extreme. You risk everything, and if you don’t achieve that thing, that can be a really challenging criticism and backlash. And that was something I was openly afraid of.
I talked to psychologists a lot. I talked to my teammates a lot about this. I worked through those first two weeks, putting mantras on these stickers. Those mantras, I added more and more every single day to just help remind myself of the things that are important.
Q: Where are those Post-it Notes now?
A: Those are in my journal on my piano at home. I want to do something with them. I almost want them engraved into some metal plaque or something. I don’t know, just something that I can put on my wall that would be a cool way to remember it because I’ve never done this before and I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again. But I felt that it was really helpful in this time.
Q: What has post-Olympics life been like for you so far?
A: Post-Olympics has been pretty intense. I went straight back into competing on the World Cup for the next two months after the Games. So I didn’t actually leave Europe until the very end of March. That was our last race of the season.
There’s a general conception, like you race in the Olympics. You win a medal. You go on a vacation. I think every sport varies but for ski racing, we are competing right away. So I think it’s a double-edged sword. You’re exhausted but at the same time, it gives you something to focus on and a goal to continue that discipline the sport provides. I think it’s really healthy to have those competitions because now I don’t feel this crazy Olympic letdown.
Q: What’s something you like to do to unwind?
A: Last year, my mom and I got into Gossip Girl. We hadn’t watched it before. So binge-watching Gossip Girl. This year, we started Grey’s Anatomy and we’re just slowly picking our way through. We haven’t gotten to some of the episodes that are a little more devastating — I already know what happens, so I’m a little bit afraid to keep going. Just started Gilmore Girls.
I think watching a good, like carefree TV show in the evening is really nice and I also really like to play music, but that usually takes a back burner to training and rest and everything else.
Q: You have a bit of a connection to Philadelphia when it comes to Kylie Kelce. Photos of you two went viral during the Olympic Games because people said you look alike. Do you see the resemblance?
A: Honestly, I do a little bit. I think that she’s much prettier and much more natural and much funnier. I just feel like she’s somebody that I would aspire to be like. She’s hilarious. But I could see [the resemblance]. Like, the blonde hair, especially if like we’re both in a ponytail. There are certain angles where I definitely see that.
But she’s generally cooler in pretty much every sense of life. I just love her. Her skin is so perfect. I’m working on my skincare routine. I’m like Kylie’s kind of my inspo for a lot of things.
