A biography for Mikaela Shiffrinhasn’t been written yet.
“Once you start having success, it's easy to forget the mentality that got you started as a kid.”
“Things you don't expect come up, and you have to adapt. You can't let it throw you off. You have to cope. Those are all really valuable skills, in life and racing.”
“When I'm in the starting gate, it's just me and the hill.”
“People tell me an Olympic medal is a life-changing event. Except I don't even think about the medal unless someone asks about it.”
“When I was 3 years old, I thought I was very good at skiing.”
“I can't really picture a time when she won't be on tour with me. Mom has always been my best friend. But, yes, eventually she might get sick of it.”
“I have all these things I want to do, but I don't have to do them right away. Because it's not just about winning, it's about succeeding, which to me are two different things.”
“I rely on breakfast to give me a kickstart of energy in the morning, so I choose my foods accordingly.”
“I have never limited myself by focusing much on being a 'normal' teenager.”
“I just have tried to adapt to the constant changes that happen all the time in my schedule and try and find any sort of mini-predictability and balance within my very unpredictable life.”
“I love traveling and seeing new things, learning the histories of different cultures. But I've always wanted to go to the Galapagos to see the giant turtles.”
“Here's the thing. You can't get ten thousand hours of skiing. You spend so much time on the chairlift. My coach did a calculation of how many hours I've been on snow. We'd been overestimating. I think we came up with something like eleven total hours of skiing on snow a year. It's, like, seven minutes a day.”
“I was lucky enough that my parents knew about World Cup skiing, so since I was really little, we were watching World Cup winning runs.”
“I think part of the fun about walking around in ski boots is making it look as awkward as possible. I really think that's enjoyable. I don't know why.”
“I remember skiing being a family recreational thing.”
“In the end, I want to be an inspiration to somebody.”
“Whether it's learning to hit a backhand in tennis, learning high school chemistry, or getting better at ski racing, I really believe with hard work and analytic preparation, you can skip a few steps and find the faster way.”
“One thing I've learned from winning an Olympic medal is that it's really exhausting.”
“Dream big, but don't be upset if it doesn't happen.”
“If I hadn't come East as a kid, I might still be a World Cup racer today, but I wouldn't be the same World Cup racer.”