Mikaela Shiffrin spoke emotionally about her late father, Jeff, after receiving her first Winter Olympics medal since his death six years ago. The greatest alpine skier ever won the women’s slalom race 12 years after becoming the youngest American woman to win gold in the competition, aged 18.
Shiffrin, 30, is now also the oldest American woman to do so after finishing 1.50 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Camille Rast, with her 47.13-second first run quicker than anyone else managed across both runs. Paula Moltzan, another American, was the only other skier to beat Shiffrin’s 51.39-second final run, meaning she maintained a comfortable lead over the rest of the field.
Speaking at a press conference after the race, Shiffrin opened up about continuing to come to terms with the death of her father, Jeff. He died in February 2020 after falling off the roof of the family’s home in Colorado while his daughter and her mother, Eileen, were in Europe.
Shiffrin spent almost a year away from the World Cup tour after his death. She returned the following February, but at the 2022 Olympics, did not win a single medal despite being favoured to win multiple golds in the six alpine skiing events.
Four years on, slalom was Shiffrin’s last chance to win a medal at these Games after finishing 11th in the giant slalom, which she won in 2018. She and downhill champion Breezy Johnson also came fourth in the team combined competition, 0.06 seconds behind American team-mates Jacqueline Wiles and Moltzan, who won bronze. Shiffrin did not enter the downhill or super giant slalom despite leading the overall standings on the World Cup circuit, but she got it done in the slalom.
Iga Swiatek congratulated Shiffrin on her success. The former world No. 1 women’s singles tennis player shared a photo of herself in front of a television on Instagram, captioning the post “You did it” and tagging Shiffrin.
She said afterwards: “For my dad, who didn’t get to see this. This was a moment I had dreamed about. I have also been very scared of this moment.
“Everything in life you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It is like being born again, and I still have so many moments where I resist this.”
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“I don’t want to be in life without my dad, and maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this reality. Instead of thinking I would be in this moment without him, to take the moment to be silent with him.”
Shiffrin added: “Before the second run, I was trying to take a nap and I sort of started to cry as I was thinking about my dad. I was thinking about the fact that I actually can show up today and honestly say in the start gate that I have all of the tools necessary to do my best, and to earn that moment.”