Mikaela Shiffrin eyes Olympic medal in final 2026 winter olympics alpine skiing slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin arrives at the final Alpine skiing discipline in Cortina with the kind of form that makes history feel inevitable — and pressure unavoidable. The women’s slalom is scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 18, with Run 1 at 4: 00 a. m. ET and Run 2 at 7: 30 a. m. ET. For the 30-year-old American, the race represents the best chance to end a surprising Olympic medal drought and add to an already extraordinary résumé.
Form, records and why she’s the favorite
On paper, Shiffrin’s credentials in slalom are overwhelming. She has compiled 71 World Cup slalom victories — far more than any contemporary rival — and if only those wins are counted she would rank third on the all-time list for Cup victories. Across all disciplines she has added another 37 wins, producing a career total that confirms her status as the most decorated World Cup skier of the modern era.
Her recent results leave little doubt about who enters Cortina as the skinner to beat. In eight slalom races this season she won seven and finished second in the other. Stretch the view back to January 2024 and she has finished first in 15 of 18 slaloms. That sustained dominance has already earned her a ninth discipline title, the Crystal Globe for slalom, further underscoring how sharply dialed-in her skiing has been in the lead-up to the Games.
But slalom is a discipline that tolerates almost no error. Rapid, tight turns on unforgiving gates reward precision and punish the slightest misread. With favorites comes expectation; with expectation comes pressure — a reality Shiffrin has shouldered throughout her career.
Olympic stakes and recent Olympic history
Shiffrin’s Olympic résumé is elite but compact: three medals, including two golds. She first announced herself on the Winter Games stage by winning slalom gold at the Sochi Olympics as an 18-year-old, becoming the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history. Four years later she added a giant slalom gold and a combined silver, cementing her place in U. S. Alpine skiing lore.
Still, that last Olympic podium came in 2018. Beijing’s 2022 Games were a shock; high expectations yielded multiple DNFs that forced her to reassess long-held beliefs about her skiing and her race mentality. Returning to form in World Cup competition has been the story of the last two seasons, and a medal in Cortina would be Shiffrin’s first at these Games and her first Olympic hardware since 2018.
The broader stakes are historical as well as personal. A gold medal in Cortina would give her a third Olympic gold, a mark that would place her ahead of several notable American alpine skiers and into rarified company in the sport’s history for the United States.
Recent races in Cortina and what to watch on Wednesday
Shiffrin’s recent Olympic runs in Cortina have offered mixed signals. In the team combined event her partner posted the fastest downhill run, positioning the pair for a podium; Shiffrin’s slalom leg did not match that speed and the team finished fourth. In the giant slalom she posted two solid runs but settled 11th in a deep field, just three-tenths of a second shy of the podium.
Those near-misses highlight the fine margins at play. Wednesday’s slalom will demand two near-flawless runs: the first to set a position among the top 30 and the second to convert that position into a medal. Weather, course set and split-second decision-making will all factor into the outcome. Given her recent streak of wins, Shiffrin will go into Run 1 as the benchmark; whether she can translate World Cup dominance into Olympic gold — and end a drought that stretches back to PyeongChang — is the central narrative heading into the final Alpine event at these Games.
Expectations are high, scrutiny intense and the margin for error tiny. For fans of Alpine skiing, Wednesday’s early-morning showdown will be one of the clearest moments to measure where Shiffrin stands on the sport’s biggest stage.
