Who can stop Mikaela Shiffrin?

Mikaela is an absolutely exceptional athlete in alpine skiing. It's no coincidence that she holds the record for the most World Cup victories. She currently has 105 World Cup wins, and if she continues skiing as she has been and avoids injury, that number will increase significantly. What she's achieved this season is unparalleled, even within her own career. Naturally, she's the dominant force in slalom, and her World Cup record is owed to this discipline. 86 of her 105 World Cup victories come in slalom, if I haven't miscounted – meaning over 80% of her wins are in slalom. But what she's accomplished this season represents the next level of her unattainable status. She has won every single slalom race held so far in the 2025/26 Alpine Ski World Cup. What's truly impressive is that she's built up a lead over all the other skiers, a lead that puts them all in the shade, relegating them to second-class status. She finishes every race with a lead of over a second, which is a huge margin in slalom: 1.66 seconds in Levi (Finland), 1.23 seconds in Gurgl (Austria), 1.57 seconds in Copper Mountain (Colorado, USA), and 1.55 seconds in Courchevel (France). Who among the other skiers can possibly stop her? Who can possibly halt her progress? The answer is clear: no one at the moment. Not a single female skier in the Alpine Ski World Cup is currently capable of holding a candle to Mikaela Shiffrin. In this form, a gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo is practically guaranteed. And that will be a heartfelt wish of hers, because she has indeed won several gold medals in slalom at World Championships, but surprisingly, she has only managed this once at the Olympic Games, namely in Sochi 2014. Of course, at such an event, personal condition, the course, the weather, and also a bit of luck are responsible for victory or defeat, but if she stays as fit as she is now, both mentally and physically, then one can certainly bet on Mikaela Shiffrin winning the gold medal.