Mikaela Shiffrin has collected sufficient victories, medals and crystal globes to fill a number of exceptional careers.
But probably the most profitable alpine ski racer in historical past says these numbers reveal little about why she continues.
In her YouTube video, “Why Do You Maintain Going? | My Sincere Reply,” Shiffrin affords an unusually open account of her present considering. The solo episode of her “What’s the Level?” collection explores motivation, retirement, large slalom, super-G and the demanding offseason hidden behind her public appearances.
Her reply to the query surrounding the following stage of her profession comes down to 1 phrase: curiosity.
“I simply wish to be taught what’s across the nook,” Shiffrin stated. “And I wish to see if the work that I do proper now can impression what’s across the nook in a constructive manner.”
At 31, Shiffrin understands why questions on retirement have turn into extra legitimate. She additionally leaves little doubt about her quick intentions.
“We’re nonetheless doing this factor, proper?” she stated.
Data Can’t Seize the Expertise
Shiffrin recited a profession résumé that features 110 World Cup victories, 168 World Cup podiums and 18 crystal globes. She additionally listed three Olympic gold medals and 15 world championship medals, together with eight golds.
Studying these achievements aloud made her uncomfortable.
“It’s cool, nevertheless it’s onerous to attach with it,” Shiffrin stated.
Her newest season added one other extraordinary chapter. She received 9 of 10 slaloms and secured the self-discipline title earlier than the top of January. She additionally earned her sixth general globe and returned to the highest of the Olympic slalom podium.
Nonetheless, statistics can not recreate the feeling of fixing a technical downside, discovering pace in coaching or producing the turns she imagined throughout Olympic strain.
For Shiffrin, that connection stays extra significant than any numerical milestone.
“It’s all the time been concerning the turns,” she stated. “That’s what I can really feel.”
Her Olympic slalom victory supplied the clearest instance. Shiffrin carried a considerable benefit into the second run however refused to ski protectively.
As a substitute, she attacked.
“I skied my coronary heart out,” Shiffrin stated. “It was the perfect run of slalom that I’ve ever completed on that stage.”
She took the danger that her method won’t work. The reward got here from snowboarding the turns she needed within the sport’s greatest surroundings.
The gold medal confirmed the outcome, however the snowboarding gave the second its that means.
Big Slalom Presents the Subsequent Query
Shiffrin’s slalom dominance commanded the brightest highlight, however her progress in large slalom might have carried larger private significance.
Whereas rebuilding after her November 2024 crash in Killington, Vermont, Shiffrin fell to thirtieth within the large slalom World Cup Begin Checklist rankings. By the top of the 2025-26 season, she had climbed again into the highest seven and ranked fourth.
Shiffrin referred to as that restoration “a monumental step” for herself and her crew.
It additionally gave her another excuse to proceed.
Shiffrin believes the extent of girls’s large slalom has risen since she received her final self-discipline globe. She described the present discipline as extra highly effective and quicker, with athletes acting at an exceptionally excessive degree.
Moderately than discovering that improvement discouraging, she finds it thrilling.
“I don’t know if I can constantly win GSs or win in any respect,” she stated. “There have been moments this previous season the place I felt like that degree was inside attain.”
At different occasions, she questioned whether or not she might attain it.
That uncertainty creates the enchantment.
“OK, let’s discover out,” she stated.
Tremendous-G Pulls Her Past the Acquainted
Tremendous-G supplies one other supply of curiosity.
Shiffrin returned to a number of super-G races in the course of the season. She described these begins as exhilarating, nerve-racking and intensely difficult.
Every one pushed her past her consolation zone.
Nonetheless, the identical thought arrived each time she crossed the end line.
“Let me do this once more,” she recalled considering.
That response instructed Shiffrin she nonetheless had one thing to pursue within the occasion.
She additionally acknowledges how a lot work stays. Shiffrin stated she wants enchancment in a number of clear areas earlier than she will turn into aggressive in super-G.
A lot of that progress, she believes, will come via repetition and larger publicity to hurry. Her mind should relearn the right way to course of the gates, terrain, snow and different calls for that arrive at a quicker tempo.
The end result stays unsure. As soon as once more, that’s a part of the attraction.
Ski Racing Refuses to Comply with a Script
Shiffrin additionally defined why alpine snowboarding can stay troublesome for informal audiences to know.
Athletes attempt to recreate the circumstances they count on to come across. Nevertheless, climate and snow can remodel a race.
A snowstorm might arrive. Temperatures can rise or fall. Fog can transfer onto the course between begin numbers. Cloud cowl can flip a brilliant observe darkish inside minutes.
Shiffrin stated these adjustments can create a distinction of five-tenths to a full second. That margin might separate a victory from third, fifth and even tenth place.
Lots of the variables stay exterior an athlete’s management.
That unpredictability makes ski racing troublesome to elucidate and forecast. It additionally ensures that athletes should maintain adapting.
Even after 16 World Cup seasons, Shiffrin can nonetheless encounter one thing new.
Outdoors Her Consolation Zone
Shiffrin’s seek for development extends past snowboarding.
Throughout a packed week in New York, she participated in two reside recordings of “What’s the Level?” and attended the ESPYS, the TIME100 Sports activities Gala, Fanatics Fest, sponsor appearances and the FIFA Membership World Cup ultimate.
These appearances might look glamorous from the skin. Shiffrin experiences them in a different way.
She described herself as a pure introvert who feels extra snug behind a helmet and goggles than making small speak on a crimson carpet.
She in contrast coming into a crowded occasion to strolling into a faculty cafeteria with out figuring out the place to take a seat.
“It doesn’t come naturally in any respect,” she stated.
Nevertheless, these uncomfortable experiences have helped Shiffrin acknowledge how many individuals stay unfamiliar with alpine snowboarding.
She views that restricted consciousness as a chance.
Her podcast and different tasks might assist introduce the game to a broader viewers. Her platform additionally permits her to debate topics that matter to her, together with grief, post-traumatic stress dysfunction, psychological well being, entry to sports activities, most cancers analysis and local weather change.
Shiffrin not too long ago appeared on Anderson Cooper’s “All There Is” podcast. She stated the responses from listeners gave that means to a dialog that required her to revisit painful experiences.
Her snowboarding created the platform. She doesn’t wish to take it as a right.
The Offseason Is Not a Trip
Shiffrin additionally addressed a persistent false impression concerning the lifetime of an elite ski racer.
After the Olympics, she nonetheless had six weeks of racing. As soon as the season ended, gear testing adopted. June and July then introduced an intensive energy and conditioning block.
Shiffrin generally trains twice a day for a mixed 4 to 6 hours. Media appearances and sponsor commitments match round these classes, not rather than them.
Her crew even considers proximity to a correctly geared up health club when deciding on lodging.
Subsequent comes Southern Hemisphere coaching earlier than Shiffrin returns to Europe in October for ultimate preparation forward of the World Cup season.
As soon as racing begins, the circuit strikes between international locations and sometimes continents till late March.
The schedule leaves Shiffrin solely 4 or 5 weeks a 12 months at her Colorado residence. It additionally limits her concentrated time with fiancé Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who follows his personal coaching and racing schedule with Norway.
As a result of the ladies’s and males’s excursions normally compete at totally different venues, the couple receives little uninterrupted time collectively.
Shiffrin stated they haven’t began planning their wedding ceremony. The delay doesn’t bother her.
“I do know who I wish to spend my life with,” she stated.
For now, they worth the restricted time they’ll spend collectively.
Nonetheless Extra to Uncover
Shiffrin has achieved extra World Cup success than any alpine ski racer in historical past.
She doesn’t consider meaning snowboarding has nothing left to supply.
She needs to be taught whether or not she will attain one other degree in large slalom. She needs to find what larger repetition might unlock in super-G. She additionally needs to make use of her platform to deliver extra consideration to alpine snowboarding and to topics that matter past racing.
The information describe what Shiffrin has completed.
Curiosity explains why she continues.
“I merely love snowboarding,” she stated. “And I nonetheless really feel like there’s extra in that.”
This text is predicated on Mikaela Shiffrin’s YouTube video, “Why Do You Maintain Going? | My Sincere Reply,” printed as a part of her “What’s the Level?” collection.
