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

In 2012, a young Mikaela Shiffrin was already being hailed as a prodigy in alpine skiing, a rising star whose talent seemed to know no bounds. At just 16 years old, she had already claimed a U.S. National Slalom title and had begun to make her mark on the World Cup circuit. Fast forward to today, Shiffrin stands on the brink of an extraordinary milestone: her 100th World Cup victory.

The path from prodigy to legend has been paved with countless unforgettable moments, and her ascent to the pinnacle of the sport has exceeded even the boldest predictions. This Q&A, written by Michael Mastarciyan for FIS’s Alpine Young Guns series, offers a fascinating glimpse into the mindset and potential of a young athlete who would go on to redefine greatness in alpine skiing.

According to the Oxford Dictionary a prodigy is “a person, especially a young one, endowed with exceptional qualities or abilities.”

The word, according to the fine etymologists who put that dictionary together, is taken from the late 15^th century Latin word for “portent” prodigium which denotes “something extraordinary considered to be an omen.”

 There is no official alpine ski racing dictionary that I know of – but if there was, it’s most current edition, if it was illustrated, would very likely have a photo of 16-year-old US slalom phenom Mikaela Shiffrin next to a definition of the word “prodigy”. The results she has obtained so far are very possibly an omen or portent of great things to come from a young skier endowed with exceptional qualities and abilities. Shiffrin may very well one day turn out to be the best skier of her generation.

Shiffrin’s meteoric rise up alpine skiing’s ranks began as soon as she was old enough to compete with the bigger racers up the FIS food chain. Just last December at the ripe old age of 15, Shiffrin won a Nor-Am Cup Super-Combined race held at Panorama, BC – it was only the eighth FIS-level race she’d ever competed in. She followed it up by taking a 2^nd, 3^rd and 1^st again in her next three Nor-Am races, a Super-G, a GS and a Slalom respectively.  A couple of weeks later she won a pair of Nor-Am Slalom races held at Sunday River, Maine. A month later she captured glory on the international stage by taking a slalom bronze at the FIS Junior World Ski Championships held at Crans Montana, Switzerland. Then in early April, just a few weeks after her 16^th birthday and a few weeks after competing in her first World Cup race at Spindleruv Mlyn, she made history when she won the US National Slalom title at a race held at Winter Park, Colorado becoming the youngest US skier to ever claim a national alpine crown.

Well-grounded, extremely humble and mature beyond her years, Shiffrin is flattered when compared to US alpine superstars Julia Mancuso and Lindsey Vonn, both of whom also made big ripples at an early age. Shiffrin, however, is quick to say she’s still got tons of work ahead of her if she is to be deserving of such high praise.

We caught up with the teenage alpine phenom recently for a quick Q&A about her life both on and off the slopes...

Mikaela, tell us how you got your start in skiing and did you have any idols as a kid?

I grew up in Vail, Colorado for the first seven years of my life and I started skiing in my driveway when I was about three-years-old. My parents would take me and my brother up to the top and send us down in little plastic skis. It was kind of natural for us to be a skiing family because we live in Vail, it’s hard not to ski when you grow up in a place where the mountains are amazing and there’s always snow! We also used to watch World Cup race videos almost every night when I was little, I remember watching Janica  Kostelic and Michaela Dorfmeister and all the other top skiers at that time. I don’t really remember this because it was so long ago, but my Mom said I idolized Janica a lot and I would watch her over and over again, which is funny because I just don’t remember it at all, but I do remember her, so it’s funny how people kind of sit with you.

People who know you well say you are very passionate about ski racing...what is it about the sport that you like so much?

I don’t really know why I’m passionate about the actual racing part of the sport. I love freeskiing and everything, but I’m always kind of trying to do drills or something. I think some people get sick and tired of it but it’s where I find my energy. I’m not really sure where the passion comes from. Sometimes I think that if I figured out why I’m so passionate about it I would lose the passion, just cause I think some things are better left unknown in a way. 

 The feeling of running in gates all the time, I just love being able to go fast there. I love music which has a rhythm and sometimes I try to make my skiing have a rhythm, and make that rhythm go faster, and it just has a really awesome flow which I just can’t get away from.

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.

Do you think winning the US National slalom title will help you next season? Will it build up your confidence?

I don’t try to take confidence from other victories because especially with skiing it’s really hard to do that. With tennis if someone’s won Wimbledon one year, when they go back the next year it’s the same court, so there’s that familiarity. But skiing is different, one race is really individual, it’s like a snowflake, it’s never actually going to be the same as another. They can be similar and you can have similar conditions but it’s never going to be the same. So I can’t necessarily say winning the national slalom is going to help at the beginning of the year, next year, when I’m on injected snow and it’s sunny out because it’s totally different conditions and probably a different hill. But I can take the feeling I’ve gotten from winning a race and being happy and that competitive edge you have and the adrenaline rush that comes out when you’ve won - I can take that feeling and remember what it felt like to win in general and bring that into World Cups or whatever races I’m doing this year.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your career so far?

Probably to keep it simple. I tend to really, really think when I’m skiing. Sometimes my coaches say, “You’re thinking too much.” It’s good to think and to analyze yourself and that’s one of my strengths, but thinking often leads to trying way too hard and I do that a lot and I kind of start skiing more like a machine and not in a good way. My coach Kirk Dwyer used to say, “Don’t try so hard, just feel it.” So you’re always trying to be disciplined with your technique but at the same time you don’t want to be trying so hard to get there, because then you’re never going to get there.

Your coach Roland Pfeiffer has gone on record saying he thinks you ski like a grown up. He thinks there is no reason to hold you back. How does that make you feel?

I like to be told I ski like a grown up (she laughs). Having that kind of maturity in skiing is nice. It makes me feel like maybe I belong a little bit more.