Mikaela Shiffrin is widely considered one of the greatest Alpine ski racers in history, known for her technical precision and record-breaking World Cup victories. In this retrospective analysis, we will look back to the future to see where she was as a ski racer in 2022, what the circumstances were, how she worked to overcome them but failed to win, and what she learned in the end. Then we will look at how Mikaela slayed the Olympic dragon, with a slalom gold in the 2026 Winter Games to see what made the difference in her mindset.

In 2020, Mikaela rushed from a European competition to her father’s bedside before he died suddenly from a home accident on February 2, 2020, during the beginning of the pandemic. In announcing his death, as was stated by journalist Matthew Futterman on February 4, 2020, in The New York Times, she spoke of her father as ‘our mountains, our ocean, our sunrise, our heart, our soul.’

It was important to note that back then, the very life skills her father and mother instilled in their daughter, such as empathy, ability to express feelings, gratitude, and desire to reach her full potential are what made her resilient in the face of adversity. However, in his absence, her dad was sorely missed at the bottom of the ski slope during the 2022 Olympics, where he was always present taking pictures of her.

Mikaela skied to grieve

Mikaela returned to the slopes just six weeks off from racing after her dad’s death, to defend her title, but the events were cancelled because of COVID. By August she and her mother had to evacuate their home because of wildfires. Her ski practice was restricted to US Western states. She sustained a back injury, and many of her colleagues counted her out and said she was finished competing, which annoyed Mikaela because she believed skiing was a distraction for her to help her heal and that she had not lost her fire.

Meeting with a sports psychologist helped Mikaela to get back on track to refocus her energy and mindset on skiing once again. However, she found herself in her living room with NBC filming a backstory about her before the Olympics, during which I saw her hold a precious photo of her father that was so rare because he always photographed her. This intimate focus during the filming initiated the “recency effect,” in which her memories of her father and his death were in the forefront of her mind, rather than with winning on skis.

With just five weeks left before the Olympics, Shiffrin was quarantined for 10 days with COVID-19 in a hotel room but went back on the slopes to win on the World Cup circuit. Mikaela was nabbed by NBC who tabbed her to ski race with “dinosaurs.”  While cross promoting a new “Jurassic Park.” Shiffrin’s Olympic prep included memories of her father, missed races, practicing before dawn with headlights, and about the five scheduled events when she arrived in China.

Feeling like a fish out of water

On paper it appeared that Mikaela ‘s season had prepared her to win multiple medals at the Olympics to surpass other accomplished skiers. Feeling like a fish out of water, she was losing grip of the training she had had since childhood. She began to distrust herself, especially since she had a recurring dream that she would ski out on the fifth gate.

As the Games began, Shiffrin started to doubt herself even more than after the first heartbreaking fall (which was symbolic since her dad lost his footing and fell off a ladder). She sat on the snow near the ski course feeling emotionally drained with her head down in her folded arms and did not have any answers. Her rivals passed her by, and she was overcome with disappointment and felt she had let herself and others down. Futterman wrote that she was always steady on her skis, but lost her footing, and had no dad to talk to about her mistakes or frustrations. She felt that she was pretty angry at her dad, although she admitted that he probably would have told her to get over it and to focus on the race, not on the outcome.

Mikaela failed to finish or did not qualify for a medal. Her attempts to meditate and visualize failed as well. Nothing seemed to help her while in a constant state of fight- or-flight. Her performance was the polar opposite of a winner. She felt like a joke, embarrassed, infuriated, disappointed, and confused.

What was learned about resilience and what did Shiffrin teach us from her stumbles?

One thing for sure was that when you fall, you brush yourself off, stand up, and start all over again. She taught all of us how to grieve and to relearn who we are after a great loss. A major accomplishment was that she never gave up and that you win some and you lose some. She had empathy for those embroiled in the Ukrainian War and for Black Lives Matter. However, the best example of her resilience as she wrestled through adversity was when she clinched her fourth World Cup title later in 2022 and won her 88^th World Cup victory that ranked her first all-time in 2023.

Let the Games Begin 2026

Olympic pressure is like no other, as we witnessed with many figure skaters and others on the slopes in 2026. You have your chance once every four years, which Mikaela learned from her last experience in 2022. In her team combined event that pairs a slalom specialist with a downhiller and combines their times, Shiffrin needed to be only average that afternoon to secure the third gold medal of her career. Instead, she was unstable and unable to adapt to the sloppy, soft conditions. She finished 15^th out of 18 skiers, and Breezy Johnson, her partner that day, tumbled from first to fourth place. During this time, she had empathy for those who failed and joy for those who won after coming back from injury, like Federica Brignone.

In the giant slalom two days later, Mikaela gave her second-worst performance of the season, according to Futterman. At this time, her past Olympic failure seemed to resurface again. Now she had one more slalom run to get down safely and fast with the stakes high.

The question everyone was asking was: “Can she repeat her Gold Medal win, and can she answer the question about how the greatest skier in sport’s history could fall three times in six races and come away from the 2022 Olympics with no medal to show for it? Could she get the monkey off her back?

It was a cold, bright morning on the day of the race, allowing for a fast course with clear visibility. The one thing missing was her dad. In an interview with Matthew Futterman of The New York Times on February 18, 2026, Mikaela stated: “This was a moment I have dreamed about” she said, “I’ve also been very scared of this moment. Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience.”

Shiffrin felt she was still resisting and did not want to live without her dad. However, she opened the path by admitting that “maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this reality, instead of thinking I would be going in this moment without him.” What she was saying was that maybe she would get to talk to him, but he would not have to answer.

Many conditions were in her favor on Race Day such as:

• A technical zigzagging at the top was tailor-made for her where she could make turns at sharp angles and gain speed, which is her specialty.
• Skiing seventh, she had a quarter of a second lead a quarter of the way down the course, but even through a little wobble midway, she self-corrected with ease.
• She developed self-confidence over time that when she is in the lead, she keeps it.
• After winning the first run, Mikaela started slowly on the second one but increased her gas. Cornelia Ohlund broke a pole during her run and skied out. Lena Duerr slipped and skied out after the first gate, which Mikaela saw but ignored.
• Her winning margin was a massive 1.50 seconds over her rivals, Rast, silver winner, and Larsson who took bronze.

The Thrill of Ecstasy

After she crossed over the finish line, she slouched down to her skis in disbelief and relief with years of agony, extinguished in a moment of thrilling ecstasy.

Early in her career, she handled performance pressure like a veteran at 18. But she had a challenged relationship with ski racing, she admitted, because she experienced so much joy and heartache. However, on that day, when she won the Gold by earning the race in that way, was wonderful,” she declared. And she was not alone because her father was there in spirit taking photos of her at the finish line!

Mikaela focused on winning using Mindful Toughness® skillsets

On the day of her runs, I saw her use the Mindful Toughness skillsets I teach, such as:

• Getting in the Zone on your own with Self-Hypnosis
• Mental Rehearsal by seeing, feeling, and hearing her way around the gates
• Mental Recall by blocking out the past and substituting times she won
• Positive Self-Talk by canceling out the negative chatter from herself and others and substituted positive words,
• Feedback Loop Analysis by looking at her first run to see what she could do to improve skiing around the gates to win gold.

Shiffrin’s victory was more than another Olympic medal. It was a reminder that resilience is not about never failing, it’s about learning how to rise again.

Dr. Christine Silverstein is a peak performance coach specializing in mental training and Mindful Toughness® for athletes.

(Partially Excerpted from Wrestling Through Adversity: Empowering Children, Teens, & Young Adults to Win in Life)