Despite Being a Certified Swiftie Mikaela Shiffrin Stops Short of Dedicating Unique Tribute to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

Mikaela Shiffrin, the queen of the slopes, continues to make history in Alpine skiing. The legend with the most World Cup wins by any skier ever recently collected her 89th World Cup in Levi, Finland, on November 12,2023. The win was a special moment for the icon, as it was her 7th victory in Levi, the most of any competitor in history. The World Cup races in Levi are world-famous for hosting one of the earliest World Cup races of the season. What sets the Levi race apart, however, are the trophies awarded to the winners, which have become global sensations, capturing attention worldwide.

At the World Cup races in Levi, the victor is presented with the symbolic prize of a live reindeer. After her latest win, Shiffrin asked fans to send in name suggestions for the newest addition to her herd, her seventh reindeer. Despite an outpouring of suggestions, Shiffrin, a self-proclaimed “Swiftie,” known for her admiration of pop sensation Taylor Swift, fell short of fans’ expectations when the anticipated homage didn’t materialize.

Mikaela Shiffrin selects a surprising name for her seventh reindeer

Shiffrin finally took to Instagram to share the name she selected for her new furry friend. She wrote in her announcement, “Behold: the announcement you’ve all been waiting for (lol, hardly, I’m sure)… I loved all of the suggestions for reindeer names that everyone sent! Finally landed on one that I don’t think too many people would expect: Grogu! The background on this is fairly simple–Grogu (Baby Yoda) is one of my favorite characters of all time”. She stated that last year during the season, she used the character as inspiration when she would get nervous at races, and it became a running joke with her team and family.

She said, “Basically, whenever I seem to be feeling a lot of pressure, someone close to me will whisper, “Groguuuuu!” And that helps me to kind of reset”. Since Mikaela Shiffrin has won seven World Cups in Levi over the years, she now boasts a collection of seven real-life reindeer as her trophies.  The skiing star expressed her surprise at the variety of names suggested by fans and even highlighted the special ones that paid tribute to her pop idol, Taylor Swift.

The almost tribute to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce

In the same post, Shiffrin shared her favorite suggestions, which included “Iga” after her favorite tennis star Iga Swiatek, “Muffin” after her beloved cat who passed away, “Loopie,” a nickname for her boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, “Petra” after Petra Vlhová, her formidable competitor who kept her on her feet, and lastly, the sweet Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift homage.

She shared that she even considered “something relating to Taylor Swift (or TSwift and Travis Kelece, cuz #trending), there are a lot of possibilities here as it was no. 89 for me and she just released 1989 (Taylor’s Version)…“Wilder” For Wildest Dreams comes to mind. Or perhaps “Seven (Mikaela’s Version)” or “89 (Mikaela’s Version)”.

Read more: “Give Her the Credit”: Despite 89th Win, Mikaela Shiffrin Left Bitter-Sweet at Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2023/24

Shiffrin now adds Grogu to the herd and her reindeer family, which includes Rudolph, whom she won in 2013, Sven in 2016, Mr. Gru in 2018, Ingemar in 2019, Sunny in 2022, and Lorax in 2022.

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