Bumps. Technical difficulties. The pressure of the World Cup finals. All of it made the Sun Valley slalom course one nervy ride down the hill for Mikaela Shiffrin. “Do I ski this, somehow, like get to the finish and get valuable points, or do I take some risk?” the American veteran thought to herself at the start. But one thing motivated her. The crowd cheered for her at every gate. Kids shouting, ‘Come on, Mikaela, you’ve got this. We want to see it.’ Well, their wish is her command. Shiffrin won the 101st race of her career. And her first words? You won’t believe this was her speaking!

Mikaela Shiffrin was tossed through the extremes this season. She started out with a win but went through possibly the most grueling injury of her career. A deep puncture wound and severe damage to her oblique muscles. Then, she tackled post-traumatic stress. But Mikaela returned to fine form like a phoenix rising from its ashes. And has now wrapped 2025 with one final win. We’ll call it a full circle moment. Shiffrin chose other words. She called it a ‘rollercoaster.’ But those tense clouds have now passed. And candid talks with the veteran are back!

Shiffrin got emotional after her win, as it’s something we don’t see often. But the minute she came over to speak to Slam Tokyo Drift, her energy and light mood were as clear as day. Shiffrin reflected on her 101st win and said, “It felt really good. And it’s like pretty tough conditions. This is not maybe my favorite conditions, but I skied some of the best skiing I have and that felt really, really good.”  

Well, the 1:45.92 finish time undoubtedly became one of her best ski runs so far. No wonder her margin of victory – 1.13sec over Lena Dürr – was her largest in a slalom this season!

Next, Mikaela Shiffrin got candid and spilled the beans about her travel plans. “What are we thinking? Take a little bit of a load off, get back with Kiel Day, do some hanging out,” the reporter inquired. An overjoyed Shiffrin at the thought of reuniting with her beau responded, “I am going to get to Innsbruck to see Alex for a couple days.”

She mentioned it was a kind of last-minute decision. But, her vision is clear, “Otherwise I won’t see him until June. So this is going to be great. Next weekend I’m going to see him, and hopefully we’ll just be like off the grid, just chill for a few days, and then we’ll get back into some training.”

Well, Mikaela Shiffrin’s win had her over the moon. But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for her to reclaim the slalom season title this year. She has clutched that a record 8 times. Oh boy, to have watched her do that again would have been a treat for sore eyes. But due to her injury in November, she had to miss 4 slalom races.

And that’s why the crystal globe went to 21-year-old Zrinka Ljutić of Croatia, who finished 10th in Sun Valley but still bagged the title by overall standings.

Nonetheless, this season was full of historic feats for Shiffrin. Overall, she’s now stood on a World Cup podium 156 times – more than any skier in history. But she did avert another major mishap recently.

Could this have been her third injury after her waist puncture and training crash in February?

Mikaela Shiffrin averted a crazy disaster again

Speaking to Slam Tokyo Drift, Mikaela Shiffrin confessed to the reporter, “You want to hear something funny?”

“Always,” he replied.

That’s when the American skier detailed how she potentially averted another disaster! She explained, “What we were talking, we were like, if you guys got this on, it would have been funny, maybe. I might have retired then and there. But yesterday I sort of got stuck on the chairlift above the men’s start, like for the second run.”

Yup, she got stuck on the chairlift!

Shiffrin continued to explain, “I didn’t actually get stuck, but I was like my jacket got stuck in it and I was like dragging over the midstation, literally over the start house, and I was like, oh, my God, if I don’t get this unstuck, I’m going to be dangling over the men’s GS start like a freaking noob.” Luckily, Shiffrin got unstuck as she mentioned it as an ‘almost moment.’

Well, the reporter and all fans are probably letting out a sigh of relief now. With all that Mikaela Shiffrin has been through this season, we wouldn’t have wanted any other mishap this season. But, all’s well that ends well.