After seven World Cup medals and 66 World Cup victories, two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a heavy blow. The death of her father hit her abruptly and hard. But the 25-year-old's resilience is also truly world-class. Neither the coronavirus nor her back had the power to stop her comeback. Matured by resilience, she was back at the start of the World Cup after 300 days. Welcome back, Mikaela!
by Henning Heilmann
Carbonate near Como in February 2020. Mikaela Shiffrin is at a photo shoot for a Sports Illustrated cover, radiating confidence of victory and fighting spirit. But then something else happens on this day. Suddenly, she receives a phone call. What follows turned the athlete's entire plans for the year upside down. It's her brother. Suddenly her breath catches....
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Carbonate near Como in February 2020. Mikaela Shiffrin is at a photo shoot for a Sports Illustrated cover, radiating a sense of victory and fighting spirit. But then something else happens on this day. Suddenly she receives a phone call. What follows turns the athlete's entire plans for the year upside down. It's her brother. Suddenly her breath catches in her throat. The father Jeff has suffered a serious accident. It is dramatic. A 10-hour flight from Munich to Denver. Nine hours lying with her father in the hospital bed, always dreading them saying it was time for him to go and at the same time hoping they would never say just that. Nine months later, she writes about how she was able to get over the loss of her father, "There is SOMETHING that helps ease the pain when every fiber of your body wants to scream. It's called resilience." Resilience is the term used to describe mental toughness, as well as the ability to cope with crises and thrive in difficult life circumstances. After everything that came crashing down on her, she managed to regain her courage. Comforting moments during the summer, when she learned to smile and laugh again with her mother Eileen and brother Taylor, along with the strong support of the team, reawakened her fighting spirit. Joy shared is joy doubled, sorrow shared is sorrow halved. The discovery of her inner resilience in the most difficult hours helped Mikaela to found the "Jeff Shiffrin Athlete Resiliency Fund". The fund strengthens the next generation of skiers in the current difficult times by reinforcing the idea of resilience among athletes through encouraging stories.
The beginnings
Mikaela Shiffrin was born in March 1995 in Vail, Colorado, the daughter of Jeff and Eileen, two former ski racers. So it was no surprise that she learned the sport at the age of two with plastic skis in her driveway. She is without a doubt one of the most successful ski racers in history. Especially in her parade discipline of slalom, Shiffrin is unbeatable: Here she is the youngest Olympic champion, the first four-time world champion in a row, six-time winner of the World Cup discipline ranking and record winner with 43 World Cup victories. In total, Mikaela has already celebrated 66 World Cup victories to date.
"There is something that helps to ease the pain,..., it's called resilience"
Early successes
Mikaela made her World Cup debut at the tender age of 15 on March 11, 2011 in Spindleruv Mlyn in the Czech Republic. Already in November of the same year, she scored her first World Cup points in Aspen. She celebrated her first World Cup victory in her strongest discipline, slalom, in Are, Sweden, in 2012 at the age of just 17. At the 2013 World Championships in Schladming, Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal in slalom. This makes her the youngest world champion in the history of the United States and the third youngest ski world champion ever. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Shiffrin became the youngest skier ever to win the gold medal in the slalom. In the same year, she celebrated her first victory in the giant slalom in Sölden. Aspen 2015 was unforgettable, when she won the slalom by a sensational 3.07 seconds: that was the biggest lead ever in a World Cup slalom. To date, Mikaela Shiffrin can celebrate 66 World Cup victories, the second most after Lindsey Vonn.
All-round genius
Her great strength lies in slalom, but she is also a strong all-rounder. Skiers who are good for victories in the speed disciplines Super G and downhill in addition to technical disciplines such as slalom and giant slalom are rare. With her victory in the Super G in Lake Louise in December 2018, Mikaela became the first athlete in the history of the FIS Ski World Cup to win in all six disciplines (slalom, giant slalom, super G, downhill, super combined, parallel competition). In 2019, Shiffrin became the world's first athlete to achieve the feat of winning the World Championship in Super G and Slalom in the same year.
The crisis
The year 2020 took a dramatic turn for Mikaela Shiffrin even before the corona virus clouded the horizon as a deadly danger and soon brought the Ski World Cup to an early end. Because at the beginning of February, her father Jeff unexpectedly died at the age of 65 as a result of a serious accident in his own home. How the painful news reached her unexpectedly, we already know. Mikaela Shiffrin then interrupted the season indefinitely. She skipped four races in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Kranjska Gora, Crans-Montana and La Thuile. Nevertheless, she already announced her comeback for March. But then the corona virus and the cancellation of the last two slaloms of the season in Åre and Cortina d'Ampezzo put a spoke in her wheel. The season was over for good and Shiffrin had no chance to close the gap in the overall World Cup (153 points) and in the slalom ranking (20 points). She therefore went empty-handed for the first time since 2016 in the fateful winter of 2019/20.
The return
Losing your father at the age of 25 is very hard and tragic. But Mikaela Shiffrin has fought her way back. The new anchor in her life is now her mother Eileen. Mikaela always stresses that her father would have wanted to see her back on the slopes. This thought gave her the strength to return, she explained back in April when she announced her return for the upcoming 2020/21 Ski World Cup season.
How good is Mikaela's form in her comeback in the current season? At the end of November, she finished second and fifth in two World Cup slaloms in Levi, Finland, scored 125 points and so far ranks third in the season standings. One thing is for sure, after all her strokes of fate, she is once again attacking the front. She shows that together you can keep the flame of hope alive.
Will Mikaela still be the most successful female ski racer of all time? Ex-ski star Lindsey Vonn is sure that Shiffrin will soon break all records. Her fame can no longer be taken away from her. In slalom, she is already the most successful athlete in history. Mikaela Shiffrin will be a symbol of resilience and a role model as a dedicated ski racer with a heart for generations to come.
Profile
Name:
Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin
Year of birth:
1995
Birthplace:
Vail, Colorado (USA)
Size:
170 cm
Weight:
67 kg
Disciplines:
Slalom, Giant Slalom, Downhill, Super-G, Combined
Association
Burke Mountain Academy
Motto
"Always be faster than the boys"
Contact
www.facebook.com/MikaelaShiffrin
Instagram: mikaelashiffrin
Twitter: @MikaelaShiffrin
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