Who’s the Greatest? Mikaela! Mi-kae-la!
100 wins. One hundred. Who does that? How does anyone do that!
By now you may have heard Mikeala Shiffrin, the American ski racing savant, has eclipsed that goal. Sunday, she also broke another record with her 156th podium finish. Not yet 30, Shiffrin has indelibly etched her name into racing history as the greatest skier of all time.
Even Ingemar Stenmark, whose records of 86 wins and 155 podium finishes stood for more than 35 years, remarked, “She’s much better than I was. You cannot compare,” Stenmark said two years ago. “She has everything. She has good physical strength, she has a good technique, strong head. I think it’s the combination of everything makes her so good. And I’m also impressed that she can ski good both in slalom and in super-G and downhill also. I could never have been so good in all disciplines.”
Stenmark won all his races over fifteen seasons, in Slalom (40) and Giant Slalom (46). Shiffrin is the only racer in history to win World Cup races in six disciplines. And Shiffrin’s race win percentage, total wins and total podium finishes are also higher than Stenmark’s, all the more remarkable because those include races in all those disciplines. The various race forms now include Slalom, Giant Slalom, Super-G, Downhill, Combined and Parallel Slalom, where two skiers ski on identical courses parallel to each other through multiple elimination rounds.
To put it in perspective, it’s like a track and field decathlete competing against the world’s best in the 100m dash, the 400m dash, and the 800m and 1,600m runs and winning them all. Yes, it’s really that incredible. No one should be able to do what Shiffrin has done.
I’ve written about Mikaela before. It’s hard not to; it’s only difficult finding new superlatives that appropriately describe her greatness. As a skier I am in awe of her mastery, her humility, her grounded mentality, and her dogged pursuit of perfection. Greatness is only a by-product of who she is and what she pursues. It’s mind blowing.
A near catastrophic injury during a fall in a Giant Slalom in November almost sidelined her entire 2024-25 season. Instead, we find her back in February, notching her 100th victory in a remarkable comeback that is still in progress. We would only say that for Mikaela. Anyone else would consider their comeback complete. For Mikaela there is more; more to finish, more to do, greater mental challenges to overcome.
One can’t help but wonder what the future holds for Shiffrin. How much longer can she keep this up? How many more wins are in her? How long will it be before injuries start to mount up? Stenmark lasted fifteen seasons and retired when he was 33. That’s a long career for a World Cup skier. Mikaela started at the age of fifteen and recorded her first win at seventeen. She turns 30 in a couple weeks; this is her fifteenth season.
How many more seasons are in her? I think she’s around until the 2026 Olympics for sure; after that, who knows. She’s engaged to Aleksander Aamodt, another World Cup skier. He’s 32, has twelve World Cup seasons and 21 wins of his own. How long will it be before they marry? How will that affect her career?
I think the end is near. I don’t see it lasting more than four seasons, at most. It’s possible the two of them ski off into the sunset after the ’26 Olympics. If I were taking odds, I would say Mikaela retires after two more years. So far, she has escaped serious knee injuries and concussions. But with age the odds change, and not in her favor.
Life is calling. I think they’re excited to begin living their life together. They can’t do that living apart on separate World Cup tours. She could end with 110 World Cup wins, another overall title and an additional Olympic medal or two. Then, we’ll be remembering the legend we have watched her create. What a magnificent, unbelievable ride it has been for us to witness. Imagine what it must have been like to take that ride. Though I’ll try, I really have no more words.
She is poetry to watch. I would love to spend a day, even an hour or two, skiing and talking with her. It would be so much fun picking the brain of a legend, and watching her execute a few of those patented perfect turns.
