mikaela shiffrin breezes to Winter Olympic slalom gold in emphatic fashion
On Wednesday (ET) Mikaela Shiffrin delivered a commanding slalom performance in Italy, winning Olympic gold by an extraordinary 1. 50 seconds and securing her third Olympic title. Her victory combined on-slope supremacy with an emotional moment of remembrance for her father, closing a long and very public chapter of struggle and resilience.
Clinical runs, emphatic margin
Shiffrin produced two near-flawless runs to post an overall time of 1: 39. 10, underlining why she arrived as the heavy favourite. The 30-year-old dominated the event in emphatic fashion — a margin rarely seen at this level of competition. This season she had already established formidable form, winning seven of eight World Cup slaloms and finishing second in the other, a run that translated cleanly to Olympic success.
Her margin of victory — 1. 50 seconds clear of the field — was a statement: when Shiffrin is at her best in slalom, she is on another plane. Behind her, podium places went to Switzerland’s Camille Rast in silver and Sweden’s Anna Swenn-Larsson in bronze, while the remaining field struggled to match Shiffrin’s blend of speed, precision and composure on the course.
Personal triumph amid grief and pressure
The win carried heavy personal weight. Shiffrin took a long, public path through grief and recovery after the death of her father six years ago, a loss she has described as an "invisible injury. " She spent almost a year away from the sport and has openly discussed mental-health struggles since. Crossing the line, she immediately thought of him: "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, " she said.
She described the aftermath of bereavement as a continuous, reshaping experience: "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. 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. " The emotion on the podium was tangible as she embraced her mother and coaches, a personal milestone as much as an athletic one.
Legacy and what comes next
This gold returns Shiffrin to the top of the Olympic podium in the slalom twelve years after her first gold at Sochi, marking the longest gap between individual golds in the same Olympic event. It also ends an eight-year run without an Olympic medal for one of the sport’s most decorated athletes. Her career record is staggering: 108 World Cup wins, five overall World Cup titles and multiple world championship crowns, making her the most successful alpine skier in the modern era.
Shiffrin framed her performance in simple terms: the hardest work is often just showing up. "It's so much work just to show up for two runs and do something that is within me and I know how to do, " she said. "It is not always easy. Sometimes it feels impossible. In the end, today, it was to take away the noise and be simple with it. " For now, that simplicity delivered Olympic gold and added a powerful new chapter to a career defined by both on-snow excellence and off-slope perseverance.
