Fourteen months ago, on a cold November afternoon at Killington's Superstar trail, the unthinkable happened. Mikaela Shiffrin—the record holder for the most career World Cup wins in alpine skiing—was one run away from her 100th World Cup victory, leading the giant slalom field with twenty thousand fans roaring her name. Then, in five seconds of chaos, she slipped, hit two gates, lost a ski, and slammed into the catch fence with a puncture wound to her abdomen.
"I am so sorry to scare everybody," she said from Rutland Regional Medical Center that evening.
What followed was not the end of a career, but perhaps its most impressive chapter.
Shiffrin returned to skiing on Jan 1. Less than three months after the crash, she won her 100th World Cup race in Sestriere, Italy. By the time the 2025-26 season opened, she had captured seven of eight slaloms, pushing her career total to 108 victories and counting. Now, at her fourth Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the 30-year-old Vermonter carries not just the weight of expectation, but the perspective of someone who has learned that falling and failing are not the same thing.
“You can fail and not be a failure”
Vermont built this resilience. Shiffrin graduated from Burke Mountain Academy in 2013, the same year she became the youngest American woman to win a slalom world championship at 17. The Killington World Cup—her home race since 2016—has always been different. Twenty thousand fans. Cowbells echoing off the peaks. A homecoming unlike any other on the circuit.
Her Olympic journey began at Sochi 2014, where she won slalom gold at 18. Four years later in PyeongChang, she captured giant slalom gold and combined silver. But Beijing 2022 brought a different lesson: three DNFs, including falls just seven gates into her giant slalom defense and four gates into the slalom. "You can fail and not be a failure," she said then. "I have won in my career and I'm going to win again."
She was right. By February 2025, she reached 100 World Cup wins—a milestone once thought impossible—and claimed her eighth world championship title, the most by any skier since World War II.
At Milano Cortina 2026, the results have been mixed but the mentality unwavering. A fourth-place finish in the team combined event—just off the podium—was followed by an 11th-place finish in giant slalom, the event where she won gold in 2018. Yet Shiffrin remains upbeat. "I think the fastest GS skier in the world got the Olympic gold today," she said, praising winner Federica Brignone. "It went better than I could have expected."
The real test comes Wednesday in slalom, her strongest discipline. "No matter how many times I've won in slalom, it doesn't get easier it only gets harder," she admits. "The level of the competition gets higher so I'll try to take that on."
Her strategy is simple but hard-won: "Turn nervousness into intensity."
From the crash on Superstar to the start gate in Cortina, Shiffrin's story is no longer just about winning—it's about returning. About skiing's power to break you and rebuild you. About a mountain in Vermont that watched her fall and waited for her to rise again.
Still the One to Beat
Wednesday's slalom represents her final opportunity to leave these Games with a medal. Despite her results so far—a 15th-place finish in the team combined slalom leg and an 11th-place finish in giant slalom—the betting markets remain firmly in her corner. Shiffrin enters as the -170 odds-on favorite at FanDuel, though those odds have softened from an opening line of -340. The gap between her and the field remains significant: Switzerland's Camille Rast, who handed Shiffrin her only slalom defeat this season on January 4 in Slovenia, sits at +340. No other competitor is priced better than 11/1.
The numbers tell the story of dominance. Seventy-one career slalom victories. Seven wins in eight World Cup slaloms this season. A combined 108 victories across all disciplines—more than any skier in history, male or female. Yet Shiffrin carries an eight-race Olympic streak without a podium finish, dating back to PyeongChang 2018 and including her three DNFs at Beijing 2022.
The runs start at 10:00 and 13:15 local time on February 18. Whatever happens, Killington will be watching—not just for the result, but for the reminder that champions aren't measured by their falls, but by their willingness to rise again.
(Photo credit: Mikaela Shiffrin / IG)