McNeirney was one of about 30 middle school and high school girls from Colorado’s Arkansas River Valley who got to hear Shiffrin speak about ski racing and pursuing life with passion. Then they skied with the Vail Valley product, who became the United States’ first three-time Olympic gold medalist in skiing at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

“I’ve never been more excited in my life,” McNeirney said. “It����ap just really, really cool that we get to meet someone who is so famous and so generous. It makes my heart go really, really fast. The fact that she’s been giving us stories about her home life, you can tell she’s a good person and she wants to laugh with us. She’s not just all about the fame and the money from winning the Olympics.”

The girls from Chaffee and Fremont counties were there through elevateHer, a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower young women through outdoor adventure. Not all were ski racers, but McNeirney is. So is Rose Lenth, another eighth grader who wore glitter for the occasion.

“She’s one of my heroes,” Lenth said of Shiffrin. “I love her. I’m so impressed every time I watch her ski. She’s like incredible, and it����ap inspiring that she’s from Colorado, knowing that you can really do anything.”

In a Q&A before skiing, the girls asked Shiffrin how she got started, what she thinks about in the starting gate before a race and what she wanted to be when she was growing up. “A rainbow horse,” she said in all seriousness, cracking up the room. Then she asked them the same question. Among the answers were nurse, veterinarian, paleontologist and baker.

“It����ap so cool to see all of these passions in the room that are completely different, but they still get to come together and enjoy snowsports,” Shiffrin said in a quiet moment away from the group before they headed out to ski. “That����ap the most beautiful example of being in the mountains — skiing and snowboarding, these sports that we do — you’re allowed to be an individual and still share a passion, celebrating everybody’s uniqueness, all their different passions and lifestyles. It����ap healthy to get outdoors, to be in the open air and be moving your body, no matter what you want to do (for a living).”

America’s ski racing superstar ‘not ready to be done yet’

Since returning from Europe two weeks ago following the conclusion of the World Cup season, , appeared with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, served as “guest photographer” at a Brooklyn Nets game and did several Gen Z digital media shows.

Her home is in Edwards, but she doesn’t get to spend much time there. In a few days, she will leave for a ski camp at Mammoth Mountain in California. There isn’t much of an offseason for ski racers. They train where the snow is, which includes trips to South America in the summer.

Three years ago, she broke the record for World Cup wins, which had stood at 86 for 24 years and was long considered unbeatable. Since then, she has added another 23 wins to her record. Having turned 31 last month, she’s not old for a ski racer, but she’s not young, either.

“My body feels the impact of the sport over time,” she said. “If you consulted my spine, skiing three days in a row now is hard. I used to be able to ski six days in a row with really high volume every single day. I don’t have the capacity to do that anymore.”

She is starting to think about life after skiing, whatever that transition might look like.

“What I know is that I’m not ready to be done yet,” she said in a conference room while the girls from elevateHer donned their ski gear. “I also feel different at this time this year than I have in any other year. I want to be able to make the time to connect with the snowsports community in a different level.”

The appearance at Copper was part of that.

“What I want to do is maybe explore these things while being able to stay fully committed to what I am doing in the sport,” she said. “That might mean less racing.”

Since 2024, Shiffrin has been engaged to Norwegian ski racing star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won the World Cup overall title in 2020. They haven’t set a date, but that may come now that the Cortina Olympics are behind her. Her older brother, Taylor, who raced for the University of Denver, became a father a few days ago. She’s looking forward to motherhood.

“That����ap something I want,” Shiffrin said. “I cannot imagine having a child right now, absolutely not, but I also can imagine that desire coming pretty fast and pretty suddenly. Now that I’ve seen their baby … I know Aleks wants that, too, but we have not been able to stay in the same place for more than a month at any point in our relationship. Can you imagine? It����ap like, ‘We haven’t seen each other really for six months, maybe a day here and there,’ and then it����ap like, ‘Let����ap have a baby.’ It doesn’t work that way.

“It gets a little bit more complicated when you think, ‘I’m 31.’ Time’s not slowing down.”

She clearly had an impact on the girls she encountered on Saturday.

“She’s compassionate and thinks about other people,” eighth-grader Anabelle Soltz said after they skied with her. “Spending time with her, you can tell how much she cares about other people and the respect she has for her sport. It’s amazing to be around. It’s powerful to see people like that. It uplifts.”

Shiffrin needed only to finish in the top 15 of a giant slalom and the American standout secured that before Aicher even began her second run.

Shiffrin finished 11th and Aicher — who needed to win the race and hope that Shiffrin finished 16th or worse to clinch her first title — finished 12th.

“It����ap quite emotional,” Shiffrin said. “This thing sums up a whole season of work and fighting with the whole team and I have to say to Emma that her skiing has been just outstanding and today it was just so cool to watch her, especially on the first run.

“I think the outcome of this day is that she can do this. And I think that����ap the coolest thing about ski racing — that anything is possible,” Shiffrin added.

Shiffrin was only 17th after the first run but came down in first position in the second and then clinched it when the next two starters placed behind her.

After being told it was over, Shiffrin dropped to her knees, put her right hand to her face and appeared to be in tears as she asked her team, “Are you sure?”

Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, Shiffrin’s fiancee and the 2020 overall champion, was with her.

“I’m really, really grateful to be in this position now,” Shiffrin said. “It����ap really a big, big emotion but I’m also grateful for the fight.”

Shiffrin matches Moser-Pröll

The 31-year-old Shiffrin matched , who won her six titles in the 1970s.

Moser-Pröll won five straight titles from 1971-75 then a sixth in 1979. Shiffrin won three straight from 2017-19, then back-to-back titles in 2022 and ’23.

is third on the women’s list with four overall titles.

Marcel Hirscher leads the men’s list with eight overall titles.

Grenier claims 3rd career victory

Valerie Grenier of Canada added to her first-run advantage to claim her third career World Cup victory. Mina Fuerst Holtmann of Norway finished second on home snow, 0.43 behind, and discipline champion Julia Scheib was third, 0.57 behind.

Shiffrin was 2.02 behind and Aicher was 2.04 behind after a major mistake early in her second run dropped her down from third after the opening leg.

Shiffrin finished 87 points ahead of Aicher — 1,410 points to 1,323 points.

It����ap been another stellar season for Shiffrin, who claimed the by dominating the slalom at last month’s Milan Cortina Games.

Shiffrin also won nine of the 10 World Cup slaloms this season and has a record 110 victories across all disciplines — by far the most in the World Cup by any man or woman. Ingemar Stenmark is next best with 86 wins in the 1970s and ’80s.

Aicher is a rare all-arounder

The 22-year-old Aicher has never won a World Cup giant slalom and has a career-best finish of fourth, achieved this month at Are, Sweden. The only current skier who competes in every event, Aicher was aiming for her first overall title after taking home two silver medals — in downhill and team combined — from Milan Cortina.

Aicher, who has a Swedish mother and a German father and grew up mostly in Sweden, won three World Cup races this season — one downhill and two super-Gs.

in the penultimate giant slalom of the season; while Olympic GS champion Federica Brignone shut her season down early.

US wins Nations Cup

Shiffrin’s results and Vonn’s domination in downhill until her helped the U.S. women secure the Nations Cup title for the first time since 1982 by finishing ahead of perennial winner Austria.

With , Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles also registering podium finishes, the U.S. produced 11 World Cup victories and 27 podium finishes with 16 different athletes contributing points throughout the season.

“This achievement is a testament to the strength of this team from top to bottom,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard chief of sport Anouk Patty. “Everyone played a role in this success.”

Tamara McKinney, Cindy Nelson and Christin Cooper led the U.S. to the 1982 title.

Shiffrin won yet another slalom on Tuesday — her ninth in 10 World Cup starts this season — by a massive margin of 1.32 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener.

That earned Olympic champion Shiffrin 100 points in the race for the World Cup overall title but Aicher’s impressive third place, awarded 60 points, kept the American’s lead in the standings below 100.

Shiffrin will start the season-ending giant slalom on Wednesday 85 ahead of the German who must win to deny the American superstar a women’s record-tying sixth overall title in her stellar career.

“It����ap weird to say battle with somebody who I consider a friend,” Shiffrin said of Aicher. “These last races have been super exciting for me to be part of it.

“I’m so excited to watch what she does in the future but for now we have one more race to decide this one.”

The odds are stacked in Shiffrin’s favor.

Aicher has never won a World Cup giant slalom and has a career-best finish of fourth, achieved this month at Are, Sweden.

Shiffrin, the , can seal the overall title herself with a top-15 result on Wednesday that will earn at least 16 points.

Swiss skier Holdener gave an assist on Tuesday by taking second place ahead of Aicher by just 0.04. That kept 20 World Cup points off Aicher’s tally.

Shiffrin’s 110th career race win on Tuesday is already by far the most in the World Cup by any man or woman. Ingmar Stenmark is next best with 86 wins in the 1970s and ’80s.

A sixth overall title on Wednesday would match for the women’s World Cup record.

Moser-Pröll won five straight titles from 1971-75 then a sixth in 1979. Shiffrin won three straight from 2017-19, then back-to-back titles in 2022 and ’23.

Shiffrin did set a women’s World Cup record on Tuesday: Nine wins in a discipline is a single-season best in 60 years on the circuit. She long ago sealed her record ninth career slalom season title.

“This season has been so exciting, quite like a whirlwind,” she said. “I’m grateful for it.”

The sun is shining on Shiffrin as the season sets with warm temperatures of 7 degrees Celsius (44 F) and softening snow that barely slowed the greatest slalom skier.

___

AP skiing:

Probably a combination of celebration and relief, as her main rival in the overall standings was second to keep the pressure on the American star.

Racing in sunny conditions, Shiffrin dominated the last race before the World Cup Finals to beat Emma Aicher of Germany by 0.94 seconds, with Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener a second off the pace in third.

“That was really amazing. I was like pretty nervous, pretty excited, but in the end it was challenging to ski,” Shiffrin said. “I pushed really hard. Quite happy to get to the finish, too.”

Second place marked the career-best result in slalom for Aicher, who in recent weeks has become a threat to Shiffrin’s quest for what would be the American’s record-equaling sixth overall title.

With four events remaining – one race in each discipline – the German all-rounder trails leader Shiffrin by 140 points, with each race win worth 100 points.

“Just the fact that I can stand here and say that I’m in contention is huge for me. I am very proud of that,” said the 22-year-old Aicher, who finished 15th in the overall standings last season.

“But Shiffrin is still far ahead of me, so it����ap going to be very hard,” the German added.

Shiffrin had lost five points of her advantage when she finished one spot behind Aicher in fifth in , before gaining 20 on her rival following Sunday’s win.

The American called her battle with Aicher for the big crystal globe “exciting.”

“There is still some pushing to do. Emma is skiing just incredible, in every event. So, I try to stay in fighting spirit,” said Shiffrin, who could match the women’s record of six overall titles set by Austrian standout Annemarie Moser-Pröll in the 1970s.

“It����ap the kind of thing that motivates me when we are off the slopes and to keep going with the mood and the attitude. But whenever I’m in the start gate, I just try to have the best skiing I can do.”

Focusing on slalom and GS this season, and two starts in super-G, Shiffrin has amassed 1,286 points in total, including 880 from the slalom discipline. She already locked up in January, weeks before the Olympics.

Aicher has gathered nine podiums this season across slalom, super-G and downhill, with three wins from the speed events.

“You can see she is quite calm and collected,” Shiffrin said about Aicher. “To be honest, she really deserves that. She has been the top, top contender across all the disciplines, that is just incredible to see someone doing this, because she is actually the only one.”

Shiffrin also won eight slaloms in the 2018-19 season, a feat previously only achieved by Croatian great Janica Kostelic 25 years ago.

Shiffrin raised her career tally to 72 wins in slalom and 109 overall — both are World Cup records.

Åre has been a good setting in Shiffrin’s career.

She won a record seven slaloms in the Swedish resort, including her first career victory in December 2012. She also took the world titles in both slalom and super-G there in 2019.

No other skier ever won more than two World Cup races in Åre.

The World Cup Finals in Norway for both women and men open with the speed events in Kvitfjell next weekend, followed by the GS and slalom in Hafjell on March 24-25.

“I am proud to be the President to SAVE Women’s Sports,” Trump wrote on X.

Then, in an instant, he tore down decades of work advancing female Olympic athletes to get equal recognition for their medals as their male counterparts.

Tuesday night’s State of the Union address and the lack of a single-female gold medalist’s attendance showed that for Trump, female athletes are an inconvenient afterthought, only to be included if required by the politics of the day.

Now, Trump will forever be remembered as the man who set women’s sports back. His decision not to include a female gold medalist sent a clear message to the nation about how unimportant women’s wins are to the White House.

Trump spoke with the U.S. men’s hockey team to congratulate them on Sunday, immediately after the team beat Canada. The men had played a rough and grinding game that captured the hearts of Americans as they won a gold medal in hockey for the first time since the 1980 Miracle on Ice.

But Trump couldn’t just use the moment to recognize their accomplishment and share in the athletes’ glory; he had to tear down the U.S. women’s hockey team, too. He invited the men to come to the White House and the State of the Union during the jovial phone call. Then he joked, “And I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team. You do know that.” Someone in the room says “absolutely,” and someone else chants “two for two,” clearly excited that their female colleagues would be included in the recognition. There is laughter at Trump’s slight, but also clear agreement that the women must be there to share in the honor.

Trump continues when the laughter dies down: “I’d probably be impeached.”

But the women were not in attendance Tuesday night. The National Hockey League players were picked up in Florida on Air Force One and escorted to the White House.

For the women, the invitation came far too late. The women’s team had won gold on Thursday and had already scattered across the country. Perhaps if their invitation to the State of the Union had come earlier, they could have had their moment standing before Congress to celebrate an American win. And it’s unclear what if any travel options were offered to the women.

But Trump is not the type of man who would ever think to invite a female athlete for recognition at the White House. He only invited the women’s team on Sunday, begrudgingly for political appeasement, as an afterthought while he was fawning over America’s best male hockey players.

Trump could have called Breezy Johnson and invited her to the State of the Union for being the first American gold medalist this winter on Feb. 9 in the women’s downhill. He could have called Mikaela Shiffrin, who won gold a few weeks later in the slalom. Perhaps those weren’t historic enough wins. American women have historically been competitive in both disciplines, unlike the men, who haven’t won either event since 1984.

But Trump wasn’t inspired to celebrate on Tuesday, either, after she came back from a break with the sport to win the first gold in individual free skate in 24 years. So clearly it wasn’t about how historic or inspiring the story of the athlete was. Trump didn’t even call to congratulate her, and he certainly didn’t invite her to the State of the Union.

I do just want to briefly explain that I understand that the U.S. men’s team is a big deal. These players are multimillionaires playing in the National Hockey League. Most are minor celebrities nationwide, and all enjoy incredible fandom in their hometowns. They are beloved athletes who just delivered for the United States. By all accounts, these are good men, too. Brock Nelson returned to Denver on Tuesday rather than going to the White House because the Avalanche has a game in Utah on Wednesday.

But the disparity in wealth and prospects between the men and women makes Trump’s obvious slight all the more hurtful.

Sixteen of the athletes on the U.S. women’s team play in the Professional Women’s Hockey League, making between about $40,000 a year and $100,000 a year. But many of them are still college athletes taking time away from school and their teams to travel to Italy and represent America. These athletes are not paid and are certainly not celebrities, except maybe on their college campuses. What an incredible moment it would have been for them to stand before Congress to thunderous applause, to gain recognition, fans and perhaps even sponsorships. Trump denied them that with how little he cared for their victory.

Should the women’s team now visit the White House in the days to come, knowing they are not really welcome there? I cannot know with certainty what would be better for women’s sports at this point: ignore the slight and make nice, or hold firm to dignity and honor and politely decline.

Either way, the women now cannot win. Trump has used his power and his presidency to hurt women’s sports, not to lift them up.

How do I know that? Last night, during the State of the Union, I ran a test and posted on conservative posts that decried the women for failing to attend, suggesting that everyone should support women’s sports as more than a punchline.

The response was resounding. Both men and women were eager to point out that women are not as good as the NHL players. Just to be clear, Trump supporters are now rubbing the inferiority of women in the face of women who ask for support for girls sports.

One anonymous man on X was even so kind as to include a link to a YouTube video from the U.S. hockey team’s scrimmage with a U17 boys team — something I’ll remind you Trump would make illegal if he could. “If women were as good as men, they’d be playing in the NHL (its open to all genders) … but I’m pretty sure the best 13yo in the world could beat the women’s team,” the man wrote, defending the president’s decision not to support the women on a national stage.

This is the type of support our female Olympic medalists get when they return home — men who don’t really count their wins as a victory. There is an asterisk by it.

Unathletic men like Trump are often threatened by female athletes. Think of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, and the response he would have if a woman beat him on his own golf course in a high-profile tournament. I can assure you the president would not be gracious and certainly would not celebrate her win.

The U.S. men’s hockey team should have declined the invitation to the State of the Union and instead waited to visit the White House when they could be recognized alongside their female colleagues. Not because they are equals physically, and not because they have the same net worth, but because someday these men may have daughters who will love the sport as much as they do.

The men could have told their daughters that they once used their Olympic gold to lift up athletes whose college teams and fledgling professional teams needed a little boost. Now they can point to a picture of themselves in the Oval Office, alone, celebrating their gold medal as if they were the only ones who accomplished that feat.

Megan Schrader is the opinion editor of The Denver Post.

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Mikaela Shiffrin was choking.

That is what people were saying. That is what they were thinking.

When you are to skiing what Serena Williams is to tennis, there is no grace, no free passes.

As Americans, we only watch the winter sports at the Olympics. It makes performances the equivalent of a college final exam, disproportionately weighted.

It is not fair. But it is who we are.

On the biggest stage — Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals — championships provide exclamation points in barstool arguments.

On Wednesday in Cortina, Italy, Shiffrin shut up her critics.

The silence was as golden as her medal.

But it wasn’t about the haters. This was about her.

She gets the credit.

She did this. Not us.

She blazed to gold in the slalom with a combined time of 1 minute, 39.10 seconds — 1.5 seconds ahead of Switzerland’s Camille Rast.

In her final race of the 2026 Olympic Games, she vanquished demons that have followed her since Beijing.

“I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash,” Shiffrin told reporters. “In the end, today, showing up, that was the thing I wanted most. More than the medal. Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable.”

Shiffrin eliminated the confusion, poofed the black cloud hanging over her.

She won gold in slalom in Sochi in 2014 and in giant slalom in Pyeongchang 2018. No one, man or woman, has more World Cup victories or podiums. She is not the product of marketing. She is a legend.

And suddenly, somehow, the Olympics became her soft spot, the site of crippling vulnerability.

Four years ago, she crashed out of both the giant slalom and slalom seconds into her runs. She ambitiously entered six events and medaled in zero of them. She would later say she was “embarrassed” by her performance.

Shiffrin had become a victim of her own trophy case. Imagine Tiger Woods, in his prime, missing the cut at The Masters annually.

When Shiffrin finished 15th in the slalom in the team combined event last week in Cortina after Breezy Johnson took first in the downhill, it created concern. Only a wreck or oddly conservative run could take them off the medal stand and Shiffrin skied tentatively, leaving the Americans fourth.

Then, she finished 11th in the giant slalom. That ran her streak to eight straight events without a medal.

It officially reignited the debate. Had the Olympics become a hurdle she could no longer clear?

It did not make sense because of her past success on and off the slopes.

Shiffrin had overcome the sudden loss of her father in 2020 and PTSD from a freak injury to her abdomen in an accident in 2024.

How could Shiffrin be the greatest and succumb to the Olympic glare?

The too-simple explanation is pressure.

It overwhelmed Simone Biles, the best gymnast of all time, in Tokyo, forcing her to withdraw because of the twisties, a spatial disorientation that affected her balance. Last week it swallowed up men’s figure skater Ilia Malinin, the Quad God, who breaks physics with his jumps but was broken by the magnitude of the moment.

Malinin has demonstrated class and resilience in talking about his disappointment, believing he has an Olympic path forward in the sport he loves. Biles restored her roar in Paris last summer, winning four medals, three of them gold, while becoming a Shiffrin ally.

Here in Colorado, Shiffrin’s pursuit of redemption was personal. She spent part of her childhood in our mountains. She trained in Vail. We wanted her to crush it for our country, of course, but really for our state, for all of us.

But she had to do this for herself.

She had to be present for this present to hang around her neck.

“Through a lot of discussions with my psychologist and my mom and my team, everything we said was that, despite pressure or nerves, I want to feel this skiing,” Shiffrin said Wednesday.

She arrived in Cortina with seven slalom wins in the first eight events on the World Cup Circuit this season. She was dominant. So when Shiffrin did not shine in Italy, it made her an easy target.

This is where nuance matters.

Skiing is unique because every mountain is different and the weather remains a variable. And as easy as it is to lump her in with Tom Brady or Michael Jordan, she is not representing a city, a state or region. She is carrying the weight of an entire country.

There is no teammate to ski the last few gates. No coach to rescue her with the perfect play call. She does not get multiple passes or 30 shots. She has a few runs, where being off line by 3 inches can lead to four years of anguish.

Shiffrin did not cower in the face of disappointment. She accepted her underwhelming performances in Cortina as a challenge, not a conclusion.

This could not have been easy. She acknowledged in an interview with Biles recently that she had nightmares before these Olympics, worried that things would not work out as planned.

We have come a long way as a sports viewing public from the days of rubbing dirt on it. But Shiffrin provided a reminder that mental issues are real and must be addressed like a physical injury.

She patiently, if not painfully, worked through her public failure in private. With one last chance to seize glory, she became comfortable again, making us all proud.

But this is all about Shiffrin.

She found the courage to remove the burden she was carrying.

And it was worth the wait in gold.

World Cup debut at 15

Shiffrin’s racing career on the World Cup circuit started two days before her 16th birthday in March 2011 in the Czech Republic. Wearing bib No. 46 in a giant slalom, she finished outside the top 30, meaning she didn’t qualify for a second run.

Shiffrin’s first podium came in December 2011. Wearing bib No. 40, she was third behind ski greats Marlies Schild, a childhood idol, and Tina Maze.

The first of her 108 wins — and counting — came one year later in Are, Sweden, on Dec. 20, 2012.

World champion at 17

Shiffrin announced herself on a global stage by winning slalom gold at the 2013 world championships in Schladming, Austria, at age 17.

“Doing what I did on the hill today … just skiing, is like dancing or flying,” Shiffrin said. “There’s so many ways that I can describe it. But it just is, and it works for me.”

Olympic champion at 18

Shiffrin became when she took a wire-to-wire victory at the 2014 Sochi Games.

“It����ap going to be something that I chalk up as one of my favorite experiences for the rest of my life,” Shiffrin said. “But my life’s not over yet.”

A 2nd Olympic gold

Shiffrin added to her trophy cabinet when she won the giant slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, plus a silver in combined.

“I don’t think it gets any easier, but I think she can take a deep breath and say, ‘The pressure’s off a little bit.’ Maybe,” said her father, Jeff Shiffrin.

Father’s death

six years ago this month, on Feb. 2, 2020, at age 65 in an accident at the family home in Colorado.

He was an anesthesiologist who leaned on his background in clinical science to help Mikaela develop original training and workout methods. He would often stay in the background at races with a camera around his neck and take pictures of his daughter.

Shiffrin flew home from Europe to begin a grieving process. After skipping several weeks of races and losing her lead in the overall standings, her scheduled return was halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which ended the season.

A foundation to help young skiers was set up in her father’s name, the Jeff Shiffrin Athlete Resiliency Fund.

Beijing struggles

Shiffrin was expected to be the star of with medal hopes in all five women’s events. What happened next was bewildering even to her.

Shiffrin skied out of the giant slalom and slalom within a few seconds of each run, did not truly contend for a medal in downhill and super-G, and failed to finish the slalom in Alpine combined. Including the team event, she went 0-for-6 in terms of medals.

Breaking Vonn’s and Stenmark’s records

In January 2023, Shiffrin won a giant slalom at the Kronplatz resort in Italy for breaking the record held by fellow U.S. racer .

“I don’t think there are words to explain all the feelings,” Shiffrin said. “In the end of it, it����ap like there’s too much excitement to feel. I don’t know if that makes sense. So it����ap something you can’t explain. So I just try to breathe a bit and enjoy it.”

Two months later, Shiffrin notched for the most World Cup wins by any skier, male or female.

Downhill crash in Cortina

Shiffrin had on the Cortina course in January 2024 when she hit the safety nets at high speed and was airlifted off the course by helicopter. She sprained the MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee.

Engaged to fellow racer Kilde

In April 2024, . The couple has not announced a wedding date.

Deep puncture wound in Killington crash

In November 2024, Shiffrin suffered a deep puncture wound during . Months later, she said she was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mother’s cancer

Shortly before the Olympics, Shiffrin revealed why her mother and coach, Eileen Shiffrin, was absent at the start of this World Cup season. She was diagnosed with cancer and had six weeks of treatments.

Olympic triumph

On Wednesday, Shiffrin won the Olympic slalom by 1.50 seconds, ending her eight-year medal drought at the Winter Games and showing why she is widely regarded as the greatest Alpine skier of all time.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin stood atop the Olympic podium, looking almost in disbelief at the gold medal around her neck.

The American skiing star hadn’t simply won a slalom race to end her eight-year medal drought at the and underline her status as surely the greatest Alpine skier of all time.

She’d also won a battle with herself.

“It’s like,” Shiffrin said, before pausing, “… being born again.”

Racing in what she described as a “spiritual state,” Shiffrin put in two dominant runs in gorgeous conditions amid the jagged peaks of to win by a massive 1.50 seconds, making her the first American skier to win three Alpine gold medals.

In emotional scenes after the race, the 30-year-old Shiffrin was embraced by Camille Rast of Switzerland, who took silver, and bronze-medalist Anna Swenn Larsson before fighting back tears as she approached her mom and coach, Eileen, for a long, deep hug next to the finish area.

Through it all, Shiffrin said, she never stopped thinking about her father, Jeff, who in an accident at the family home in Colorado in February 2020.

“This was a moment I have dreamed about — I’ve also been very scared of this moment,” Shiffrin said. “Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience.

“And,” she added, her voice starting to tremble, “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, like, reality.”

It was the largest margin of victory in any Olympic Alpine skiing event since 1998 and the third biggest in women’s slalom — the event she won as a fresh-faced 18-year-old in Sochi in 2014 to buttress her rising status as a skiing superstar.

Twelve years later — and having failed to meet huge expectations at the 2022 Olympics, become the most successful World Cup skier of all time with a record 108 victories, and overcome the two biggest crashes of her career and an ensuing battle with post-traumatic stress disorder — she delivered again in her favorite event.

Her skiing career, in a sense, had just come full circle.

“Maybe,” she added, “just today, I realized what happened to me in Sochi.”

At the medal ceremony, she shook both of her hands by her side as she was about to receive her medal. When it was placed around her neck, she put one hand to her mouth.

For Shiffrin, this also was a release of the pressure that had been building after going eight Olympic races without a medal since adding gold and silver to her collection in Pyeongchang in 2018.

A nightmarish 0-for-6 performance in Beijing was followed in Cortina this year by a in the team combined — when Shiffrin placed 15th in the slalom portion after teammate Breezy Johnson led the downhill leg — and then in the giant slalom.

It was fodder for the “keyboard warriors,” Shiffrin acknowledged, but she ignored all of them in a masterpiece Tuesday.

“I couldn’t think of a more well-deserved medal for an athlete to win,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of the U.S Ski and Snowboard Association. “She’s been so dominant but as we know these big sporting moments in the Olympics bring extra pressure and scrutiny. And to see her ski that well and just go for it, I couldn’t be prouder of her.”

Shiffrin has now won three golds and a silver at the Olympics to add to her record total of World Cup wins — which include 71 in slalom, also a record. There’s also world titles in slalom (four), giant slalom and super-G to fill out arguably the greatest career in Alpine racing.

“In another league,” was how Larsson put it.

Shiffrin led by 0.82 seconds after the first run on a mostly flat course that Team USA officials described to her over the radio as a “high-tempo ripper.”

There was one wobble when she struck a gate and for a fraction of a second, it appeared she was headed for another Olympic disappointment.

Not this time.

She snapped back into form to post a time, in the No. 7 bib, no one could get near.

“When I saw one second (behind) after the first run,” Rast said, “I was like, ‘OK, the gold is gone.’”

While she attempted to nap before her second run, Shiffrin said she started to cry because she was thinking about her dad.

“And then,” she added, “I was thinking about the fact that I actually can show up today and honestly say in the start gate that I have all the tools that are necessary to do my best skiing, and to earn that moment.”

Given her emotions, Shiffrin’s second run was impressively smooth as she got through the tough top section without a hitch and pushed through the slower middle section.

After crossing the finish line, Shiffrin slowly squatted and took a private moment to think about all the people who’d got her to this moment.

“I felt every range of emotion in the last three months, the last four months, the last four years, the last eight years,” Shiffrin said. “There’s so many different journeys I’ve been on to just be here today.”

___

AP Olympics:

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — stood at the start gate atop the giant slalom course at sun-splashed Tofane and made a promise to herself.

“I’m going to do this whole thing here,” she said.

Considering the path the American star has taken to reach the , and to this event in particular, that was enough.

So while the leaderboard near the finish line during Sunday’s GS needed to flip to the second page before Shiffrin’s name appeared in 11th, the most decorated skier in the history of the sport didn’t view her finish as a disappointment.

Disappointment is washing out, which she did . Disappointment is wondering if the speed that once came so easily would ever return while recovering during a World Cup start in Killington, Vermont, in late 2024 that left her abdomen punctured and her confidence shaken.

What happened during what Shiffrin called “the greatest show of GS skiing we’ve had in a really long time” was not disappointment. If anything, it was the opposite.

Yes, Shiffrin finished outside the top 10. The way the snow felt underneath her skis and the razor-thin margin that separated the silver medalists from the chasing pack — there was no catching Italy’s on this day — offered evidence she’s trending in the right direction heading into slalom, her best event, on Wednesday.

“To be here now like within touch of the fastest women, that����ap huge for me,” Shiffrin said. “So I’m proud of that.”

The gap between Shiffrin and co-runners-up Sara Hector of Sweden and Thea Louise Stjernesund was an impossibly tight 0.3 seconds in a discipline that requires skiers to make two runs.

When Shiffrin in Pyeongchang eight years ago, the gap between silver and 11th was around 1.4 seconds. Four years ago in Beijing, it was nearly 2 seconds. Three weeks ago at a World Cup event in Czechia, where Shiffrin in the GS in two years, it was over 3 1/2 seconds.

On Sunday, Shiffrin was right there. A turn here. A turn there. On a course that was a little flatter and a little less technically demanding than what Shiffrin and the rest of the best skiers in the world usually see — one almost explicitly designed to create a safe and ultracompetitive race — the difference between a medal and the middle was nearly imperceptible.

Shiffrin promised to “learn” after slogging down through the slalom in the women’s combined last week, when her skis couldn’t seem to “go.” Perhaps too aware of the perception of an Olympic slump — the Games are the only place she hasn’t won in the last eight years — she did her best to refocus and block out the noise.

In her mind, she did just that. She could feel herself taking power from the course. As “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine blasted over the speakers during her second run, Shiffrin felt like she was in the moment and not in her head.

“It felt good to push, which was amazing,” she said, later adding: “It felt really good to ski high intensity.”

Shiffrin’s intensity feels as if it is slowly but steadily ramping up. She wore bib No. 3, a nod to the fact she’s back in the top 7 in the world in the GS, something she considered a “challenging task” when the season began. It����ap become doable, but Shiffrin has learned progress isn’t linear.

While she continues to dominate slalom — in which she’s already clinched her ninth with two races to go — GS is another matter. Sure, Shiffrin’s 22 career GS victories are a record. But she hasn’t won a GS race since late 2023.

Her climb back up the GS rankings has been fueled by consistency. The “lights-out speed” she knows is required to finish atop the podium doesn’t come quite as easily as it did when she was at the peak of her powers. That����ap fine.

“The task ahead of me for the coming months (and) in the coming years is to try to bring that kind of intensity and fire and to continue to work with the team to find those hundredths (of a second) that it takes to actually win races,” she said.

That didn’t happen under the snowcapped peaks of the Dolomites on Sunday. Maybe on another course, one with a more difficult setup that would allow her to lean in to her experience, things may have played out differently.

It����ap not a conversation Shiffrin seems particularly interested in having. The layout allowed for competitive racing. And she pointed to the medal stand — where the 35-year-old Brignone won her second gold in four days and Hector added silver to go with the gold she captured in Beijing in 2022 — as proof the results were not fluky.

“It wasn’t like somebody won who wasn’t supposed to win,” Shiffrin said.

Brignone emerged as a deserving champion. Behind her, however, was chaos. Shiffrin doesn’t think that����ap a bad thing.

“(We were all) close and that����ap how that����ap how high the competition level, is I think,” she said. “That����ap a beautiful show of our sport on an Olympic stage.”

“Obviously, our first goal was to break the record for the largest (professional) women’s sporting event ever in the United States,” Rob Cohen, controlling owner of Summit FC soccer club, , told me Tuesday. “But our latest goal is to set a record that hopefully will never be broken. I hope that fans get excited and fill up the building.”

Don’t put it past them. Don’t put anything past them. Not this town. Not this team.

No one has gotten more than 40,091 into one building for a U.S. pro women’s soccer match. Or any professional women’s sporting event. Until Denver. Until next month.

The National Women’s Soccer League expansion franchise, which debuts next month in San Jose, just passed the 40,000 mark in ticket sales for its home debut at Empower Field on March 28. Which is where the history part comes in.

The NWSL record for attendance is 40,091, set last August by Bay FC at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants. That’s also the high-water mark for any pro women’s sporting event ever held in the U.S.

Say bye-bye, Bay. Tickets for March 28 are still available. Empower seats roughly 76,000 for football. We’re only just getting started here.

“My husband has friends here. They’re like, ‘Hey, can you get me tickets?’ I’m like, ‘You guys know I only get four only per game,'” Summit FC striker Ally Brazier (nee Watt), a multi-sport star at Pine Creek High School, recalled to me with a grin.

“So, I’m going to have to steal all my ticket requests from my teammates if they’re not using them. But there are so many people reaching out for tickets. Even people that I know flying in from different parts of the country saying, ‘Hey, everybody bought tickets to your home opener. I was like, ‘You live in Florida,’ or, ‘You live in Georgia.’ They’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m flying up to see you play. This is epic.'”

This is fun. Crazy fun. Summit FC held its first-ever media day Tuesday in Glendale, where they’ve moved preseason camp after a fortnight in sunny Santa Barbara. The team’s slated to train at Infinity Park through Feb. 13. They’ll open their inaugural season at Bay FC on March 14.

“(I was) really excited about the culture of the team and the way we had it together,” said Cohen, who flew to SoCal recently to see how camp was progressing. “They obviously haven’t been together for that long. Just the way they’ve come together and bought into what we’re trying to do and what the vision is we have for the franchise, it’s obviously a manifestation of all of the work we’ve put in over the last 12 months to make it happen.”

Cohen and the Summit ownership group — which includes Colorado icons Mikaela Shiffrin and Peyton Manning — aspire to only one class: First. All the way. Top to bottom. When Cohen hired GM Curt Johnson and coach Nick Cushing, he told them the exact same thing:

“Look, there aren’t many expansion teams in history that have won championships in their first year. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.”

“No pressure,” I said to Cohen.

“No pressure,” he laughed.

The best record for a first-year NWSL team? Well, that’s Bay FC again, with an 11-1-14 mark in 2024. Two seasons ago, that club became the first NWSL team to reach the postseason as an expansion franchise.

“It’s no different than anything else in life,” Cohen continued. “If you have the capacity for excellence, why settle for normalcy?”

The new normal looks kinda awesome, though. The jersey — sorry, shirt — is coming soon. So are the alternates. Golden native Lindsey Heaps, another Denver icon, is due to join the roster in June. She should be up to speed the time the Summit moves into their temporary stadium at Centennial in July.

The first-year club will play its home opener at Empower in March, then have two matches (April 25 and May 16) at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, home of the MLS Rapids, until the franchise’s Centennial HQ is ready for its July 3 debut.

Technically, part of the new park is already here, chilling in local warehouses, ready to be assembled. Other parts are in transit. Other parts are sitting in containers at the Port of Los Angeles, allegedly.

Thank you, tariffs.

“It’s no different than the game on the pitch — you’ve got to deal with what comes your way and what’s thrown at you,” Cohen said. “So (having) tariffs and having it done overseas was just part of what we need to do to get it (done).”

They need to keep several trains running smoothly right now — on about eight different tracks. And the designs for their permanent home at Santa Fe Yards, still slated for a March 2028 opening,

“It’s moving quickly,” Cohen said. “Someone said to me the other day, ‘There are three things that go with projects: You can do ’em fast, you can do ’em cheap or you can do ’em high-quality, but you can only have two of the three.'”

Another laugh.

“So I tell people, ‘Well, we’re certainly doing it fast,'” he said, ”And we’re certainly doing it high-quality.'”

Talk is cheap. History ain’t. The view from the Summit gets better by the day.