From Prodigy to Legend: Mikaela Shiffrin’s Journey to 100 World Cup Wins

When you won the slalom at Topolino in 2010 you beat the field by more than three seconds. How did you pull that off exactly?

I was really on fire for slalom that year for sure. I kind of figured something out with slalom and rhythm like I said earlier. I refer to rhythm in skiing as tempo and I hear the slalom gates hitting the snow and my pole guards and I can kind of feel the rhythm while I’m skiing, and by how fast I’m hitting the gates, I can almost tell how fast I’m going. Something about focussing on that tempo almost slows it down for me and allows me to still be fast but not feel out of control at all. Three seconds is a lot in ski racing but if you break it down to each gate, it’s not that much. So my competitors weren’t that far behind. The second place finisher and all the girls were right there with me. Three seconds sounds like a lot but in reality they weren’t that far behind. 

You’ve been compared to racers like Lindsay Vonn, Julia Mancuso and Lara Gut in terms of being such a promising skier at such a young age, how does this make you feel?

It makes me smile and then I have to take a step back and say, “Well I’m not there yet.” They were at this point when they were at my age but they’re still at the top at their age now, I’m stating the obvious right now (she says with a laugh) but I have a point! I still have a long road ahead of me and I hope I can stay on track but there’s no guarantees. So I’m always trying to shield myself from any outside talk that I’m the next Lindsey Vonn, because first of all I don’t want to be the next Lindsey Vonn, I want her to always be able to say, “I was Lindsey Vonn,” and I can maybe someday say, “I was Mikaela Shiffrin,” and have people know who that was. But mostly it’s just sticking with skiing and sticking to what I know because I have no idea what’s going to happen this year since I’ve never been in this situation. I just have to remember why I’m doing it and not get caught up in, “Am I the next Lindsey Vonn or Julia Mancuso?” or whatever it is. I just have to stay focused. 

Have you gotten any advice from Lindsey and Julia?

Not really advice but they’ve both been super great and have offered to help me if I need any help or have any questions. At the World Cup last season in Spindleruv I didn’t really want to ask them anything because I really didn’t want to bother them. It’s one of the big races of the season because it’s at the end of the year and they had pressure to do well. Lindsey was contending for the overall and Julia for the GS title and they’re always trying to win so I didn’t really want to be a little girl asking questions all the time, I wanted to just watch them from a distance. That being said, they’ve helped me a lot even without saying anything. The way they act when they’re skiing, and their attitudes, and they’re always smiling and trying their best, and always, always trying to win.

You dipped your toes into the World Cup pool last March in Spindleruv Mlyn. Will you be racing World Cup again this year?

Yes I will be racing in some World Cups and some Nor Ams and probably some Europa Cups, but I think mostly World Cups, but we’ll see as we get closer to the season.

Can you see yourself skiing speed events on the World Cup circuit in the not-to-distant future?

I love speed, for sure I love speed, but I don’t have much experience with it, so it’s kind of a death wish to go on the World Cup circuit thinking I can do Super-G or downhill. I need a lot more experience on easier speed courses, just to get everything dialed in, especially to get jumping dialed in. I’ve done speed before, I’m not afraid of speed, I love going fast, but I do like the technical events more because they have more of the rhythm I like. So I think I’m just going to try to stick to the technical events right now. I would love to be an all-around skier, but maybe not in the first couple of years.

 Does a teenager who skis like an adult still have time to be a teenager? What’s life like for you when you’re not racing or training?

In the summertime I’m either at ski camp or at home working out and doing school work because I’m trying to get ahead on next year’s school work. It’s hard to say if I have a regular teenage life or not because I’ve never really known anything different and this suits me just fine because I’m not too much of a social person. I can talk with all my friends and people I know but if I just meet someone face to face I totally freeze up and can’t get any words out (she laughs!). I have an awesome life. I can’t complain, but I can’t say if it’s normal or not. 

I’ve heard your favourite television show is Glee. Do you watch it quietly or sing along?

I quietly watch but then I sing the songs afterwards (she laughs). I’m astounded because all the music they have on Glee plays to my taste. Radios don’t always play to my taste, my own music doesn’t even always play to my taste. So having a show where I like every single song, makes it all the better.

I read an article about you that described you as mature, humble, deliberate, calm and grounded. How does that make you feel when you hear that?

It makes me happy hearing people tell me I’m humble, it makes me feel like there’s something to be humble about, which always makes me smile. It also makes me want to be more modest. I just want to stay calm and quiet and humble.

 The terms phenom and prodigy are often used to describe you, how does that make you feel?

I honestly don’t even know what to think. Stuff that’s never been done before and all that stuff, I just try not to think about it. There’s always a first for everything and the way I see it I guess is I’m just trying to be the first for this, and hopefully it’s going to inspire other athletes to try to be the first for something. My goal is to spread the wealth in a way and say, “Look I did it, you can do it too!”

 Is it hard to stay grounded when you hear stuff like that?

 In some ways it is, but there are definitely times when my friends or my parents tell me, “Mikaela you’re getting a little off track.” Then I say, “Whoa, whoa you’re right, you’re totally right!” So I go off and do some core (training) or something and try to get back to the basics and simplify my life. It’s funny because my life translates into skiing in almost every way. My coach from J3s, Kirk Dwyer always told me, “You’re trying too hard, you just need to feel it. Simplify. Always look for the simplest way down the mountain because it will be the fastest if you’re doing the right things in a simple way.”  So I try to keep my life as simple as possible because it makes it easier to succeed outside of skiing. I’m not bringing any extra drama or anything, but there’s always the times when I start to smile a little too much because I won a race, and my parents tell me, “Look it’s behind you and you’ve got a lot of work to do ahead of you so get back to focussing and get back to your goals.”

I read an article about you written by a psychologist named Dr. Jim Taylor and he said the red flags he usually associates with phenoms are a fear of failure and perfectionism…but he didn’t think they were qualities that applied to you. Do you agree? Have you ever been afraid of failing or considered yourself a perfectionist?

I don’t have a fear of failure in skiing. I don’t really want to make a fool of myself, but skiing is something I know by heart and failure isn’t really a concept for me, and it shouldn’t be a concept really for any skier, because you’re out there doing something you love so how can you fail at it if you love it? But if I’m doing something new, like say playing squash or something, I would for sure take it easy and probably act like a ditz because that’s my fallback if I don’t know how to do something. I’m always trying to do well in whatever sport I play, or in school. I will, for sure, try new things and try my best and make mistakes and not worry about it, and laugh along with people if I do something stupid. So I don’t think I’m a perfectionist because I’m not afraid of trying new things even if I’m not good at them.

You won a bronze at World Juniors in slalom, what was that experience like?

I didn’t really feel excited because I was still pretty nauseated. I had skipped the GS because I was throwing up all night. For some reason flu viruses always find me. I felt awful the day before and then that night I’m pretty sure I dreamt about throwing up on the slalom course, and then I said, “This has got to stop, there’s no way I’m missing the slalom because I’ve got a bug!” So it worked out, I got up there and was skiing and was having hot flashes, then I was having shivers and was sitting in the snow saying, “Oh my goodness, I don’t know how I’m doing this!” Then I got to the top of the start and the course is really steep and there’s not much terrain so it wouldn’t have been like a roller coaster ride so that was good for the nausea. I looked down and saw the finish and said, “I don’t think I can get down there!” So I just tried to go as fast as I could and get out of the finish and get to a bathroom so I could be safe again, I guess it was fast enough. I was just trying to stay calm the whole day (she says with a laugh).

You took your first national title in slalom this year, what did that feel like?

That day was crazy! I broke a boot buckle on the training course, it just flew right off. I was kind of skiing well on the training course, I felt a little bit off but it really didn’t worry me, but then I noticed I didn’t have a boot buckle! So then we pulled a buckle off a friend’s boot who was nearby and used it on my boot for the race. 

The best part about the whole experience was when Sarah (Schleper) and Resi (Stiegler) came up to me and gave me a huge hug. They were so supportive and it was the best thing they could have done for me because they let me have that moment of fame in a way and it made me feel so much better. With them being there and smiling at me, it actually made me forget that I won and made me remember that they’re two amazing skiers and really good people that I’m going to be skiing with for the next couple of years. They were there for me and that just made everything so much better.