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NEED TO KNOW
- Mikaela Shiffrin bounced back to win a slalom gold medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics
- The skiing star nailed her first and second runs, besting Germany's Lena Duerr
- The win comes following disappointing giant slalom and team combined events for Shiffrin in Cortina
Mikaela Shiffrin bounced back from a shaky start at the 2026 Winter Olympics by taking home a gold medal in women’s slalom, solidifying her Olympic comeback after coming up short in Beijing in 2022.
Shiffrin, 30, excelled in her first run of the day on Wednesday, Feb. 18 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, clocking in at 47.13, a solid .82 seconds ahead of Germany’s Lena Duerr.
The most decorated skier of all time maintained her lead on a near-flawless second run hours later, securing her second slalom gold medal, which she first won in Sochi in 2014. Upon finishing, she briefly put her head down, full of emotion, before getting up and pumping her fist with joy.
Shiffrin's path to gold was made slightly easier after Duerr straddled a gate almost immediately after starting her run, resulting in a failure to finish.
Following her first run, Shiffrin said she “felt very clean” on the course.
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“It’s a straightforward hill and a pretty straightforward course set besides this one combination, so it requires a lot of precision, a lot of mentality, and then a little bit of tactical planning on the middle,” she told reporters. “I felt like I nailed it with some question marks, but the time is good so I’ll take it and just give it a go on the second.”
Shiffrin admitted that there were “for sure some butterflies and some nervous energy” heading into her second run, but said she had “big energy today so just focusing on the gates between the start and the finish.”
The win ensured that Milan Cortina wasn’t totally a bust for Shiffrin, who came in 11th in giant slalom on Feb. 15 and fourth in women’s team combined with Breezy Johnson on Feb. 10.
Still, the skier has maintained a positive attitude throughout the Games, especially in the wake of her 2024 crash in Vermont that left her with a five-centimeter-deep puncture wound to her abdomen and “intrusive thoughts” and PTSD, she later told PEOPLE.
“I have an overwhelming sense of gratitude that I simply get to be here, after everything. I’m proud of how far I’ve come,” she wrote on X on Feb. 14. “A little over a year ago—following my crash and injury in Killington I couldn’t even imagine skiing giant slalom at this level again, let alone starting in the discipline at the Olympics.🥹🙏.”
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.
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