Mikaela Shiffrin won’t let doubt cloud her love of Alpine skiing

On Thursday (17 February), Mikaela Shiffrin, the American Alpine skier who came to Beijing 2022 with high hopes of multiple medals, posted a heartfelt note on social media.

In it, the 26-year-old, a three-time Olympic medallist including two golds in her favoured slalom event at Sochi 2014 and giant slalom at PyeongChang 2018, offered an emotional riposte to those critical few.

Willing herself to get up "again, again, again, again, again, again, again" despite criticism from haters, Shiffrin says, "It's not always easy, but it's not the end of the world to fail".

Referencing her five individual events so far in which three were 'Did Not Finish' plus a ninth in super-G and 18th in her rarely competed downhill, Shiffrin questions why she keeps coming back. She has the answer. She loves her sport.

"I come back because those first nine turns today were spectacular, really heaven. That's where I'm meant to be and I'm stubborn as s**t."

Besides, Shiffrin has one event left, the team discipline, and you know who will be wanting the best for their distraught teammate who has brought so much joy to the US Alpine ski team over the years – a career that also includes six world championship titles and three Overall World Cup champion accolades? Her teammates, who will want to win a medal for her, for them, for Team USA, and most of all, they will want to win it together.