Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the women's slalom at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on February 18, ending an eight-year Olympic gold drought. The 30-year-old skier finished 1.50 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Camille Rast, with Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson taking bronze. Shiffrin described the victory as a deeply emotional milestone following her father's death in 2020.
Mikaela Shiffrin secured her third Olympic gold medal in the women's slalom on February 18, 2026, at the Olimpia delle Tofane course in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. Her combined time of 1 minute 39.10 seconds marked the largest margin of victory in an Olympic alpine skiing event since 1998 and the third largest in women's slalom history. This triumph followed disappointing results in Beijing 2022, where she went medalless, and recent events in Cortina, including an 11th-place finish in the giant slalom and a fourth-place in the team combined.
Shiffrin, who holds a record 108 World Cup victories, became the first American alpine skier to win three Olympic golds. Her previous golds came in the 2014 Sochi slalom and the 2018 PyeongChang giant slalom. The win also made her the U.S. skier with the most Olympic golds. Silver went to world champion Camille Rast of Switzerland, the only skier to have beaten Shiffrin in slalom this season, while Anna Swenn Larsson of Sweden earned bronze.
The victory carried profound personal significance for Shiffrin, whose father, Jeff, died in a 2020 accident at age 65. "Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience," she said. "It’s like being born again. I still have so many moments where I resist this. I don’t want to be in life without my dad." Before the race, she reflected on her grief, noting, "I sort of started to cry a little bit because I was thinking about my dad. Maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this reality."
Shiffrin spoke of her journey through injury and doubt, including a serious crash at the end of 2024 that affected her giant slalom. "When I think about where I was last year I was like, ‘I don’t know, maybe I’ll never race again.’ So here we are in a totally different position," she said after the giant slalom. She credited her team's support for helping her regain clarity, emphasizing that the race felt like "just ski racing" amid the Olympic pressure.
Looking ahead, Shiffrin expressed uncertainty about her future, including potential participation in the 2030 Games. "I feel that there's some kind of transition in my career coming closer, but I don't know what that looks like," she told reporters on February 19.
