Mikaela Shiffrin eyes Olympic medal in final Alpine skiing event of 2026 winter olympics alpine skiing
All attention in Cortina narrows to one run and one athlete on Wednesday, Feb. 18: Mikaela Shiffrin, the dominant slalom specialist, gets a final chance to break her Olympic medal drought in the women’s slalom. Run 1 begins at 4 a. m. ET, followed by Run 2 at 7: 30 a. m. ET, with the sport’s marquee technical event closing out the Alpine program.
Why Wednesday’s slalom matters
This is more than another race on the calendar. The women’s slalom is the last Alpine discipline scheduled at these Games, and for Shiffrin it represents a chance to end a recent string of disappointments and to add to an already historic résumé. Entering Cortina, she has three Olympic medals — two gold and a silver — but none since 2018. A victory on Wednesday would hand her a third Olympic gold and, in doing so, move her past a tie for most Olympic golds in U. S. Alpine skiing history.
Beyond podium hardware, the slalom will test Shiffrin’s mental and technical resilience. She arrives with heavy expectations: her slalom dominance on the World Cup circuit has been nearly unassailable this season, and the Italian slopes present the last opportunity at these Games to translate that form into Olympic metal.
Recent form and Olympic history
It is difficult to overstate Shiffrin’s credentials in slalom. She became the youngest Olympic slalom champion at 18 and has since built an unmatched slalom record on the World Cup. Her 71 slalom World Cup victories are the most ever in the discipline; when paired with 37 wins in other events, her overall total places her among the top winners in the sport’s history.
This season has been especially strong. In eight slalom races during the 2025–26 Cup season she has won seven and finished second in the eighth. Stretching back to January 2024, she has taken 15 victories in 18 races. She has already clinched her ninth Crystal Globe for slalom, a testament to sustained superiority.
Yet Olympic history has sharpened the narrative. Beijing 2022 brought unexpected DNFs in the technical events and left Shiffrin publicly re-evaluating aspects of her skiing and mindset. At these Games she has shown flashes of both reassurance and vulnerability: in the team combined her partner posted a fastest downhill time but Shiffrin struggled to find the ideal slalom groove, and the duo finished fourth. In the Cortina giant slalom she posted two solid runs but landed 11th, just three-tenths of a second from the podium.
What to watch in Cortina
Key factors that will decide Wednesday’s slalom are snow conditions, start order, and how tightly Shiffrin can execute two technically precise runs under Olympic pressure. The slalom course on the Tofane slope demands quick edge transitions and instant recovery from mistakes; in slalom even fractions of a second are decisive. Shiffrin’s season-long mastery of rhythm and line gives her a clear edge, but Olympic courses are uniquely unforgiving.
Expect margins to be thin. Several challengers have shown speed in Cortina and on the World Cup this season, so Shiffrin will need a near-flawless day to translate Cup dominance into Olympic gold. For the United States, the event is both a medal opportunity and a measuring stick for its depth in technical events.
Whatever happens on Wednesday, the slalom will be a defining moment of these Games: a final Alpine showdown, a high-stakes test for the world’s top slalom skier, and potentially the end of an Olympic medal drought for one of the sport’s most accomplished athletes.
