CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Dozens of reporters speaking languages from all over the world packed into an intimate press conference room outside the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium Saturday evening, eager to hear what Mikaela Shiffrin had to say in her first availability of the 2026 Winter Games.
“Wow,” she said, doe-eyed, grabbing at the back of her neck in the doorway. “OK.”
Perhaps a reflection of her humility, or the work she’s put in with her therapist, or a combination of both, Shiffrin dripped with ease. She was looser than a first grader’s front tooth. She emphasized gratitude to be on this stage for a fourth time – and for the process that led her back to it.
‘There’s so much else that has gone on in the course of the last four years, and the last eight years, and 16 years of my career so far,’ Shiffrin said. ‘So pressure can exist (at the Games), but like Billie Jean King said, pressure is a privilege.’
This year, she’s paired down her program to team combined, giant slalom and slalom.
Shiffrin’s return to the Olympics comes a little over a year after a head-over-skis crash at the Killington World Cup gave her an abdominal stab wound. All she could feel as she slid on her back down the snow was pain. She has since been diagnosed with PTSD that likely stemmed from that terrifying tumble and other not-as-severe accidents throughout her career.
As part of her treatment and return to international skiing competition, Shiffrin has fallen in love with the process. Ah, yes, that tired sports cliché. But seriously. Changing one’s mental and physical reality takes time, hard work, patience. All things that have vaulted Shiffrin to Cortina.
‘I don’t have an exact answer for how to define success at this Games,’ she said. ‘We’ve been working so hard, my coaches and the staff. And every single day we show up on the mountain with our values. Show up with work ethic and motivation. … So, how I see it now, the most successful thing would be to continue this work through these Games.’
Freeing herself from expectation with equanimity, Shiffrin arrived in the Dolomites goofy as could be. She fiddled with the power button on her microphone and mumbled, ‘cool, technology.’ She made silly faces after innocently stumbling through the ends of answers. She kept the media entertained, fielding a question about her viral ‘back abs’ by saying she wish she had more on her front.
Shiffrin was smooth, if a bit silly. Perhaps a sign of smooth racing to come.
Reach USA TODAY Network sports reporter Payton Titus at ptitus@gannett.com, and follow her on X @petitus25.