It’s been more than a decade since Mikaela Shiffrin has been racing in the snow, making the United States proud of her accolades. Recently, she secured her 99th win in Gurgl, Austria, which made her a step closer to making history. Yes, the American alpine skier will be aiming for her 100th in a matter of a few days at Killington, Vermont.

The race will be held at her home turf, where she has grown and currently finds herself as one of the greatest ever alpine skiers in the history of the sport. However, while the anticipation is high for Shiffrin’s victory, the athlete still has her own set of struggles that emerge on her. Surely, she has worked on it, but she wasn’t also shy from revealing the things that scared her prior to the race day.

The trickiest piece to her final puzzle

Athletes like Mikaela Shiffrin have showcased their impressive talent all over the world. Surely, whenever somebody watches the American going down those snowy slopes, it just showcases her daring nature and the mindset that she has while performing such acts. However, what seems to be the case from an audience’s perspective is completely different when it comes to the point of view of the alpine skier.

In Moving Right Along’s Season 3, Episode 1 on her YouTube channel, Shiffrin went completely candid on something that scares her before any major event, stating, “This year the case was like, physically prepared, training up until the race. That was awesome. I had been skiing fast, um, and what I find sometimes is just I struggle with the final piece of race day mentality to really put the hammer down and bring out my best skiing.”

Shiffrin acknowledged the efforts that she has been putting into her training that ultimately will transfer into the race results. However, apart from her top physical state, her mental state is quite different. Even though she is daring to go down the slope and get the victory, doubts still hover upon her, and these thoughts are nothing but of her own self. “I had some turns in the first run that were awesome and some things that I wanted to improve, and went to try to improve it on the second run and just kind of worked against myself,“ said the alpine skier about her preparations for the race day.

There have been many new techniques that she has been applying to get the maximum results. Also, Shiffrin is grateful to her team, which has supported her in many cases, especially giving her the best physical treatment to be at the top of her game every time she goes down that snowy slope. However, while she is aware of her physical skills, she still revealed that there’s a lot of mental work that is pending, and she needs to concentrate on that before the race day when she will be chasing her 100th World Cup victory at her home turf.

Shiffrin also pointed out that her fans might have a question about her experience that doesn’t seem to quite go side by side with her mentality, to which she answered, stating, “You would think by now I’d have figured it out after 14 years racing World Cup and a number of wins, so you’d think I’d have figured it out, but it’s not something that comes naturally to me.“ Even after 99 World Cup victories throughout her stellar career, the American alpine skier struggles with the race day mentality, and she isn’t afraid to talk about it, as it’s normal to not be perfect.

Returning home this year wouldn’t be the same for Shiffrin. This time, she has an ambition when she will be racing in Killington, and while she is excited about it, she knows there will be many challenges that will be waiting for her. If she manages to secure her 100th victory, she will leave a lasting legacy in the history of alpine skiing; however, she recently opened up about a persistent question from the community.

Mikaela Shiffrin’s honest thoughts on her legacy

What’s a legacy? It’s something that an athlete or a person leaves behind whenever they aren’t present in a particular place or industry. In alpine skiing, after Mikaela Shiffrin’s 100th victory, she will be creating a whole new legacy that will be a benchmark for the upcoming generation of alpine skiers. However, she is troubled with this particular term, as she has been asked about it multiple times by most of the people she has met or observed.

“But the first time I was asked was quite a come-to-moment for me because I was 19 years old. So, I’m 19 years old, thinking, ‘I’m supposed to have my life planned out already?’ like I’m just, I’m doing this, I’m committed to this, and the rest of the world was already thinking about what I was supposed to be doing off the snow. And the legacy question is so intriguing because it does feel loaded,” stated the alpine skier on how she has been troubled with this particular query.

Back on March 11, 2011, she made her World Cup debut. Eventually, she secured her first World Cup victory on December 20, 2012, in Are, Sweden, and the rest is history. There’ve been many wins after that, but every time she is confronted with this similar question of legacy. The concept of legacy is something that isn’t in the books of the alpine skier. For her, every time she hits the snowy slope, she always expects an adrenaline-filled competition and always wants to live in the moment. Whatever she will be leaving behind will be decided when she leaves the sport, but until then, there are many things that are on her bucket list to be cleared, especially that sweet 100th World Cup victory on the home turf.