Emotional collapse after drama
The mystery of ski star Mikaela Shiffrin
After the disappointment, Mikaela Shiffrin reveals her longing for her dead father Jeff
© JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT / Picture Alliance
It is extremely rare for Mikaela Shiffrin to make a fatal mistake on skis. It seems almost impossible for the American superstar to fail twice in a row. But that is exactly what happens at the Olympic Games. And again it happens in the slalom of all places.
By Tobias Nordman
The slalom is an extremely precarious affair. In no other competition in alpine skiing is the dance between skis and poles as close as it is in this discipline. Nobody knows this better than Mikaela Shiffrin. And actually nobody can do this fast, hot back and forth in just under a minute better than the American. The 26-year-old has already triumphed in the slalom 47 (!) times. Nobody celebrated more victories. Not Ingemar Stenmark, the most successful skier in history. Also no Alberto Tomba, no Marcel Hirscher, no Marlies Schild, no Vreni Schneider. The biggest legend in Pole Forest is Mikaela Shiffrin.
But in the days of the Beijing Olympics, she has not yet written a new heroic story. Her story is an ongoing drama – and she herself paints the right picture in the snow this Wednesday. Shiffrin is fighting for five seconds for her second Olympic gold in her favorite discipline in her third participation in the Winter Games. Five seconds ending with a banal mistake. Like a few days before in the giant slalom. The woman who rarely makes mistakes makes a mistake. And now twice. In the USA, where the stories of rising heroes are celebrated and staged more epicly than anywhere else, the Olympic world stands still for a moment. At NBC, they struggle for words – and can’t find them. The commentators stammer “How can that be?” together. In fact, it is the question of all questions. Have you had health problems again, like in 2018 when she vomited before the start (and finished fourth)?
Shiffrin will try to answer them later, but now, after her mistake, she’s sitting in the snow, on that white ribbon in bone-dry surroundings. What a scene! She lets 15 riders rush past her. 15 skiers who are still living their dream on this artificial snow slope – and later become sobered by all the cruelty of this competition, like the German Lena Dürr, who, as the leader of the first round, only finished fourth in the final. What is Shiffrin thinking lonely off the track at this moment? Nobody knows. What does she feel? anger, sadness? Hardly anything can be read from her. She sits there with her arms crossed in front of her body. Empty. Then nothing. A moment that goes around the world.
Moving message of love for Shiffrin
“There are so many messages, meanings and thoughts that come up when you look at this picture. Most of you probably see it with the words: ‘She lost it’, ‘She can’t handle the pressure’ or ‘What happened?'” her partner Aleksander Aamodt Kilde wrote in a moving Instagram post. It frustrates him. “I only see a top athlete doing what a top athlete does! It’s part of the game and it happens. The pressure we all put on individuals in sport is tremendous, so let’s have the same support giving back. It’s all about balance and we’re normal people!! Love you Kaela,” the 29-year-old wrote.
Moments like this are not known from the American. She probably doesn’t know moments like this from herself. “Of course the pressure is great, but that wasn’t the biggest issue today. I wanted to take the most aggressive line. I started with a strong mentality – then I was out,” she said. A cool analysis from a professional athlete. An analysis full of adrenaline. Which is later followed by the emotional breakdown.
The mega-dominant skier of recent years shed heartbreaking tears of disappointment and touched the Olympic community with a desperate longing for her dead father, who was her main anchor in difficult moments. “I’d really like to call him now,” she confessed in a shaky voice. Jeff Shiffrin died in a tragic accident at home two years ago. “He would probably say to me: Get over it, but he’s not here to tell me that.” That makes everything even worse. How could he let her down like that? “I’m pretty mad at him,” Shiffrin said.
Insecure like never before
The American should have been the star of the games once more. But instead of the triumphs, now the sporting tragedy: out at the seventh goal in the giant slalom, error at the fourth goal in the slalom, which her eternal rival Petra Vlhova of all people won. But how can that be? Maybe it was the pressure? The pressure to add the next superlative to your successful story? To become an even bigger hero? The history of sport has shown again and again how fatal such an overload of expectations can end, see for example tennis star Naomi Osaka or gymnastics legend Simone Biles last year. And Shiffrin himself can also report on it. In 2014 she was still the liberated super-teen, in 2018 the (failed) top favorite. The starting position was therefore different in Beijing, the pressure is now even greater. “It’s better to ask a psychologist,” Shiffrin replied evasively to a corresponding question. Your two best chances of winning the Olympics in China are wasted.
“It feels like a lot of work for nothing.” And now? Give up? No. “I’m just a little drop in a big bucket here,” she said, “it feels like it’s everything, but it’s not.” Especially “not the end of the world”. Because “as hard as it is: It’s not the worst thing I’ve ever experienced,” she confessed and was probably very close to Papa Jeff again: “It’s not comparable to the worst things.”
And it’s not the end of the Olympic competitions either. Already on Friday she has the next of up to four chances in the Super-G, this time she is not the top but only a co-favourite. But the often extraterrestrial on skis, who has so often pushed the boundaries in her sport with her strength, her feeling, her technique and conviction, she is suddenly unsettled. “I feel like I have to question a lot.”
This article first appeared on ntv.de