After claiming an emotional Olympic gold, Mikaela Shiffrin’s thoughts turned to one person who was not there – her father, Jeff.
The American crossed the line as Olympic slalom champion, as she did 12 years ago in Sochi, aged 18.
Only this time, as she embraced her mother and coaches, she felt the absence of her dad, who passed away six years ago.
“For my dad, who didn’t get to see this. This was a moment I had dreamed about. I have also been very scared of this moment,” she said.
“Everything in life you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience.
“It is 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 and maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this reality.
“Instead of thinking I would be in this moment without him, to take the moment to be silent with him.”
Shiffrin spent almost a year away from the sport following the loss – which she referred to as an “invisible injury” – while she has spoken openly about her mental health struggles.
Her triumph in Italy, claiming gold in emphatic style by an extraordinary 1.50sec margin, cements her name among the greats of alpine skiing.
The 30-year-old clocked an overall time of 1:39:10 to become a three-time Olympic champion, following her success in Sochi then Pyeongchang in 2018.
The eight years in between without an Olympic medal have brought many challenges for Shiffrin, within and away from the sport.
But she said the most important thing on Wednesday was to “show up” for the race.
“It’s so much work just to show up for two runs and do something that is within me and I know how to do,” she said.
“It is not always easy. Sometimes it feels impossible. In the end, today, it was to take away the noise and be simple with it.”
Seven-time world champion Shiffrin arrived in Cortina as the heavy favourite under significant pressure to deliver.
This season she has won seven of eight slalom World Cup races and finished second in the other to seal the overall title with races to spare.
Her 108 World Cup race wins make her the world’s most successful alpine skier, while she has featured on the podium a further 58 times and won the overall title five times.
But the unwanted tagline of ‘being unable to perform on the big stage’ has followed her since she failed to win a medal in Beijing four years ago.
Shiffrin crashed out of both the giant slalom and slalom events just seconds into the runs, completing six races but returning home without a medal.
Behind the scenes, Shiffrin was still struggling to come to terms with the loss of her father and said she suffered with memory issues, which meant she would struggle to remember courses.
Then, having overcome that to become “stronger as a person” and closing in on a 100th World Cup race win, she crashed in a giant slalom race in Killington in December 2024, sustaining a puncture wound and muscle damage to her stomach.
Again, Shiffrin’s mental health suffered and she said she had visions of her crashing and a fear of doing it again.
Even enjoying a remarkably successful season this year, questions remained around whether Shiffrin could return to the top of the Olympic podium after things did not initially go to plan for her in Cortina.
She finished 11th in the giant slalom and an agonising fourth in the team event alongside Olympic downhill champion Breezy Johnson.
But in her favoured event, where she has 71 World Cup race wins, the most by any alpine skier in any discipline, Shiffrin was able to block out the noise and “just ski”.
“I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash. It’s not easy to do that, but I’ve been so focused every single day,” she said.
Shiffrin did all the hard work in the first run, gliding down the piste in 47.13secs to give herself a significant cushion going into the second run.
Again, her thoughts went to her father.
“Before the second run, I was trying to take a nap and I sort of started to cry as I was thinking about my dad,” she said.
“I was thinking about the fact that I actually can show up today and honestly say in the start gate that I have all of the tools necessary to do my best, and to earn that moment.”
Shiffrin, already the most decorated alpine skier of all time, won gold with what was ultimately an exhibition run, completing the run in 51.97secs to beat Switzerland’s Camille Rast and Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson.
In an emotional news conference, she said: “I think part of my journey through grief has been challenging because I don’t feel this thing that a lot of people talk about – this deep spiritual connection with their loved one.
“People talk about feeling the presence and I have not felt it that way. I think about my dad all the time. I feel connected to him in my thoughts, and talking about him.
“Sometimes I have also been resentful of the people feeling this person and they’re like, ‘They are here with me and they’re carrying me through this day’. And I am like, where? Why do you get to feel that? Why can’t it be easier?
“Today, it was like maybe I just get to talk to him, and maybe he doesn’t have to specifically answer. Which is hard, but it is OK.”