Mikaela Shiffrin was born on the 13th of March in 1995 in Vail, Colorado. Both her parents, Eileen and Jeff, used to be ski racers, so Mikaela came in contact with the sport when she was still a toddler. Living in Vail enabled her to start really young and with the support of her parents it was soon clear, that she was not just an average skier.
Later on, Mikaela attended Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont, joining her older brother Taylor. Throughout her childhood she perfected her skills and her technique. When she turned 15, the minimum age required for FIS-races, she started competing on a higher level and even won a couple of NorAm-races. Not even the stomach flu could stop Mikaela Shiffrin from winning the bronze medal in Slalom at the Junior World Championships in early 2011.
At the end of the 2010/11 World Cup season, Mikaela competed in her first two events only days before turning 16. Her first podium followed next season in slalom in Lienz (Austria) and her first win in slalom as well as her first slalom globe a year later in Åre (Sweden).
The 2015/16 season started with a record setting slalom win, 3.07 seconds over the runner up. Later that season she tore a knee ligament and had some bone bruising after crashing during a warm-up in Sweden. She missed two months of the season but returned to win 3 more slalom races.
In 2017 Mikaela won her first Overall globe. In her 2018/19 season she added a giant slalom and a super g globe to her slalom and overall globe. That season she became the first ski racer to ever win in all six disciplines, including the parallel event, after winning her first super G race and her first downhill race a season earlier. With a total of 17 wins in one season, she has won the most races per season.
Mikaela Shiffrin has always been an exceptional ski racer, even at a young age. At the age of 17 she became World Champion in slalom in 2013 and has been holding on to that title since then, adding a silver and bronze medal in giant slalom and a gold medal in super G. Her goal of winning five gold medals at the Olympic Winter Games might not be far away, Mikaela
became the youngest female Olympic Champion in Slalom at the Games in Sochii 2014 and also won a gold medal in giant slalom and a silver medal in the combined in PyeongChang 2018.
After her 2019 season, Mikaela is the fifth best ski racer of all time with a total of 60 wins, the best in slalom with a total of 40. She has earned three Olympic medals and a total of seven World Championship medals, and owns an incredible collection of eight discipline globes and three consecutive Overall globes.
No wonder that Mikaela Shiffrin is already considered as the best ski racer of all time.
