How Mikaela Shiffrin’s Latest Olympic Setback Gave a Heartbroken Teammate a Medal

Somehow Mikaela Shiffrin, the winningest ski racer of all-time, didn’t win a medal at her last Olympics, in Beijing, despite competing in six races at those Games. But entering the slalom portion of the Olympic alpine team combined event on Feb. 10 in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, a podium finish for Shiffrin, 30, seemed like a near certainty. Even in ski racing, where there are none.

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In the morning, Shiffrin’s partner for this debut Olympic event, the freshly crowned Milano Cortina downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson, again ran the fastest downhill in the field, giving the top slalom racer this season, not to mention in history, a cushion. So when Shiffrin started her afternoon run, the American skiers who were sitting in third at that moment, downhiller Jackie Wiles and slalom racer Paula Moltzan, figured they’d be bumped to fourth. Which just would have added another heartbreaking chapter to Wiles’ Games: on Sunday, Wiles finished fourth in the downhill and broke down in tears in front of reporters afterward, crushed by coming so close to a medal. Wiles hadn’t slept well the previous few days.

Wiles and Moltzan were in a difficult position. Their success depended on the failure of their teammate and friend. But as competitors, especially at the Olympics, often do, they rooted for that failure. “We were asking for a miracle,” said Wiles.  

Unfortunately for Shiffrin, she delivered it. Moltzan figured Shiffrin would slalom down the course and win the combined, for her and Johnson, by at least a second. But out of the gate, a rare color kept popping up for Shiffrin on the video board, at each of her intervals. Red, not green. She was behind. 

When Shiffrin crossed the finish line, her combined time with Johnson was the fourth fastest in the competition, keeping Wiles and Moltzan in third and securing their bronze. Shiffrin’s slalom time of 45.38 seconds was the 15th fastest in the field. You have to go back nearly 14 years, to a World Cup event in March 2012, to find the last time Shiffrin finished as low as 15th in a slalom race. She had just turned 17.

Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria won the gold, while Germany’s Emma Aicher and Kira Weidle-Winkelmann took silver. “I didn’t quite find a comfort level that allows me to produce full speed,” says Shiffrin. “I’m going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust to in the short time we have before the other tech races. There’s always something to learn.” Shiffrin’s Olympics are far from over: she has the giant slalom on Feb. 15 and the slalom on Feb. 18 to close out the women’s alpine competitions in Cortina. 

Shiffrin’s 108 World Cup wins have secured her GOAT legacy, she has a medal from Sochi and two medals from PyeongChang, and she has dominated the World Cup circuit, despite a giant slalom crash in November 2024 that caused her to miss a chunk of that 2024-25 season.  So she could have been crushed on Tuesday as her tough luck at the Winter Games persisted. But Shiffrin rarely sugarcoats her feelings. If failing to meet Olympic expectations was starting to get to her, she’d let us know about it. 

Instead, Shiffrin seemed genuinely happy for her teammates, especially Wiles. “We got to watch Paula and Jackie receive their medal, and they have earned that,” said Shiffrin, citing Wiles’ fourth-place downhill finish. “There’s soooo much sweet about the day.” 

Call her remarks a brave face. But you can’t call them insincere. Shiffrin has never rolled like that. Moltzan earned a bit of redemption on Tuesday too. At the 2025 world championships, American Lauren Macuga, whose torn ACL kept her out of these Olympics, led the downhill portion of the team combined: a subpar Moltzan performance dropped them to fourth. (Johnson and Shiffrin won that world title.)

“She’s been so gracious and kind and supportive,” said Moltzan of Shiffrin.  “She is a beautiful winner, but also a really beautiful loser. That’s really hard to do. That takes a lot of skill.” 

Wiles, who ran the third-fastest downhill time on Tuesday, really wanted her medal on Tuesday. “I think this was probably the most stressful day of my life,” she said afterward. Someone knocked into Wiles while the entire U.S. alpine team was doing a celebratory chant after the competition, and her bronze fell off its ribbon. She picked it up and clutched it in her left hand, in no hurry to let go of it.  

While Johnson and Shiffrin, close friends since childhood, dreamed of winning Olympic gold together, Johnson spoke to Shiffrin on Monday night. “I was like, listen, like, there’s no pressure on my side,” said Johnson. “I already have my Olympic gold. I’m going to do my best. You go do your best. Check out the slalom course, have some fun.”

Shiffrin still doesn’t have her gold—at these Games. And while she was certainly gracious in defeat, she won’t let herself off the hook. Since crashing in that 2024 giant slalom, she’s been slower returning to form in the event: she reached her first giant-slalom podium this season, a third-place finish in Czechia, in late July. Shiffrin has won seven slalom races in the 2025-26 season. She finished second in another.

“I’m careful not to make excuses,” said Shiffrin. “I got a lot of information today. I don’t know exactly what that is yet. But we’re gonna do a lot of analysis.” 

She has two more shots at changing her Olympic narrative.