CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin closed her eyes, gave a deep breath and took a big step back onto the top of an Olympic podium.
The American skiing standout was a gold medalist at the Winter Games once again — and she couldn’t quite believe it.
Shiffrin put in two dominant runs in gorgeous conditions amid the jagged peaks of the Dolomites to win the women's slalom by a massive 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.
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.
She also said she was thinking about her father, Jeff, who died at the age of 65 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. It’s 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,” she added, her voice trembling. “And maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this, like, reality.”
The victory made Shiffrin the first American skier to win three Alpine golds and was the third-largest margin of victory in a women’s Olympic slalom — the event she won as a fresh-faced teenager in Sochi in 2014 to underline her status as a skiing star.
Twelve years later, and having gone through so many highs and lows on and off the course, she delivered again in her favorite race as her skiing career came full circle.
“Maybe,” she added, “just today, I realized what happened in Sochi. It’s crazy.”
Source: WPLG
