{"id":491840,"date":"2026-02-18T21:53:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T22:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=491840"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:22:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:22:02","slug":"us-stars-emotional-tribute-to-late-father-after-comeback-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=491840","title":{"rendered":"US star's emotional tribute to late father after comeback gold"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikaela Shiffrin won her first Olympic<\/a> gold medal in eight years on Sunday, but for the 30-year-old American it felt above all like the first since her father's death six years ago \u2014 the culmination of a long journey to reach a place where the moment was just about ski racing once again.<\/p>\n

"Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience," she said after claiming the slalom title to put her Beijing 2022 Games blank behind her.<\/p>\n

"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."<\/p>\n

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That private struggle unfolded alongside a complicated sporting return marked by injury, self-doubts and the slow rebuilding of trust in her own skiing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"When I did get injured\u2026 my slalom was in a place that I felt was repeatable. And my GS (giant slalom) was not quite," she said.<\/p>\n

Even the Olympic stage felt much more complicated than before.<\/p>\n

"Yes, I think it's harder," she said when asked whether excelling at the Games was more difficult than on the World Cup circuit.<\/p>\n

"I wouldn't have said that in Sochi (2014, when she won slalom gold) because I was like, what are we talking about? It's just skiing."<\/p>\n

On Sunday, however, she found the clarity she had been searching for.<\/p>\n

"What was beautiful was that I actually felt that it was\u2026 it just felt like ski racing. It felt like another day on the mountain between the start and the finish," she said.<\/p>\n

Watch the Winter Olympic Games Milano Cortina 2026 live and free on Channel 9 and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Plus, every event live & on demand, every medal in 4K, and exclusive international coverage on<\/strong><\/em> Stan Sport<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Shiffrin's comments revealed how thin the margin remains between success and failure, regardless of experience. After a disappointing team combined race, she was reminded how much work she had to do despite her career all-time record 108 World Cup wins.<\/p>\n

"I can show up with however many victories\u2026 and they think it's a given. And I'm like, this just goes to show how hard it is," she said.<\/p>\n

She beat Camille Rast of Switzerland by 1.50 seconds \u2013 a gap almost as big as the total of the margins separating first and second in women's Olympic slaloms since 1998.<\/p>\n

"It felt like it was just on the limit\u2026 we're just right nudging against the ceiling," she said.<\/p>\n

Before the race, however, her grief had resurfaced.<\/p>\n

"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," she said after choosing in the finish area to take a moment to be silent with him.<\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/p>\n

Her mourning process has been uncertain rather than spiritual.<\/p>\n

"Part of my journey through grief has been challenging because I don't feel this thing that a lot of people talk about\u2026 this deep spiritual connection," she said. "People talk about feeling the presence, and I haven't felt it in that way. I feel connected to him in my thoughts and in talking about him."<\/p>\n

What enabled Shiffrin to reach that moment was collective belief.<\/p>\n

"The wonderful thing about this day was that I felt proud before it happened because of my team," she said, describing conversations that helped untangle her emotions.<\/p>\n

In the end, the message they gave her was disarmingly uncomplicated.<\/p>\n

"It is as simple as skiing. It is something that I have within myself and we've trained and prepared for," Shiffrin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mikaela Shiffrin won her first Olympic gold medal in eight years on Sunday, but for the 30-year-old American it felt above all like the first […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":491842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=491840"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491845,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491840\/revisions\/491845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/491842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}