Mikaela Shiffrin
Mikaela Shiffrin
Mikaela Pauline Shiffrinis an American World Cup alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team, specializing in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. She is the reigning Olympic, World Cup, and world champion in slalom. Shiffrin is the youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history, at 18 years and 345 days...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSkier
Date of Birth13 March 1995
CityVail, CO
CountryUnited States of America
I have been here before in my head. To everyone else, it is my first Olympics. To me, it's my thousandth.
I was lucky enough that my parents knew about World Cup skiing, so since I was really little, we were watching World Cup winning runs.
I remember skiing being a family recreational thing.
I may have become a world champion quicker than most, but people should look at me and realise there are all kinds of ways to get where you want to go. Because we didn't plan it. We just did it.
You can create your own miracle, but you do it by never looking past all the little steps along the way.
It's like a puzzle or a painting or music. When I ski, it's like a song. I can hear the rhythm in my head, and when I start to ski that rhythm and I start to really link my turns together, all of a sudden there's so much flow and power that I just can't help but feel amazing. That's where the joy comes from.
I'm not really seeing pressure as a negative.
If you strive toward the perfect run, accepting that you will always come up short of that is very intriguing. It makes me think about how in life in general, we always want to strive toward perfection, but sometimes perfection would be the worst thing.
I like it when hard work pays off.
The harsh cold and windburn from hours of skiing does a lot of damage to my skin, so I try to keep my skin as moisturized as possible.
You can't ever make the perfect run, but you can make the best run, and then you clock the fastest time, and that's a win.
I have some really lofty goals that don't even scratch upon the Olympics.
I love traveling and seeing new things, learning the histories of different cultures. But I've always wanted to go to the Galapagos to see the giant turtles.