With grit and precision like no other, she gracefully descends the towering snow-capped mountain. Her hair billowing in the wind, her skis effortlessly gliding on the glistening ice as if afloat, she is one with the snow and the mountain. This is the essence of Mikaela Shiffrin. In the world of Alpine skiing, Shiffrin has long been a dominant force to be reckoned with.

After all, the legend has made history by achieving the most World Cup wins by any male or female skier ever. With two Olympic golds, an impressive five overall World Cup victories, and four world championship wins, she is the youngest slalom champion in Olympic Alpine skiing history. Her legacy stands tall in the world of sports, but her roots run deep as well. Here?s all you need to know about the skiing legends’ family.

How Mikaela Shiffrin’s parents fell in love through skiing

Mikaela Shiffrin is the second child of Eileen and Jeff Shiffrin. Eileen had skiing in her blood and grew up with a passion for the sport. When she was a child, her parents would take her and her siblings up Mt. Greylock during the winter, and there, using sickles to cut the meadow grass, they would prepare a slope for their children to ski on. That is where her deep love for the sport took root. However, she had to pause her passion when she started studying at a nursing college. Later, her mother became a nurse, and this noble journey led her to the love of her life. In 1985, fate brought her mother and her father, Jeff, an anesthesiologist who at the time was completing his cardiothoracic rotation, together at St. Elizabeth?s Medical Center in Brighton, Massachusetts. Jeff himself was an avid skier when he was young and would often visit Vermont on the weekend with his family as a child.

Eileen spoke about her love, saying he was “brilliant, jovial, and curious, with a solution to every problem?.? Unable to resist her charm, Jeff had asked Eileen out on a date, and he even had to convince her to give their love another chance. That?s when the epic love story began. Young Jeff and Eileen took their first vacation together as a couple and visited the snowy wonderland of Aspen. The snowy trails and scenic winter reignited the passionate old flame in Eileen?s heart for gliding down the soft powdery snow, and she even stated, ?If it wasn?t for Jeff, I wouldn?t have kept skiing?. She even stated how?Jeff reawakened the love of the sport that had remained in Eileen’s heart over the years.

Growing up with skier parents

In 1986, a year after they first met, the beautiful couple tied the knot. ?Five years later, realizing the incredible connection they felt to the snowy trails of Aspen, they moved to the world-class skiing city of Vail. A year after moving to Vail, Jeff and Eileen welcomed Taylor, Mikaela?s brother, in 1992. And three years later, Mikaela arrived in 1995. ?Jeff and Eileen, both avid and passionate skiers from a tender age, introduced their children to their passion and the world of skiing. The couple would take little Mikaela and Taylor on family outings at Vail and teach the two the art of gliding over the snow. Later, when Taylor was 9 and Mikaela was 7, their parents enrolled them in Ski Club Vail.

According to Aspen Sojourner, SCV?s Rika Moore began to coach the kids, and soon the two rapidly began to progress. When most coaches would not even let other kids try the slalom gates, Mikaela, on the other hand, cleared the slalom gates with her sheer talent. Later, the family moved to New England due to Jeff?s career, and the kids found their safe space at the Burke Mountain Academy.

The family moved to Vail in 2009, but Mikaela went back to Burke, and her mother decided to move with her and help her by home-schooling her while monitoring her training. Over the years, the fire and sheer talent within Mikaela couldn?t be tamed. She even won the prestigious Topolino races in Italy, sweeping most of the wins when she was 14. Her parents tried their best to keep the soaring youngling grounded.

Her dad?s rules for her were, ?Be nice. Think first. Have fun,? which Shiffrin has affixed to the back of her helmet. Taylor, too, made immense progress and went on to win two NCAA team titles with the University of Denver. Later in 2011, Eileen became Mikaela?s full-time traveling companion and would also handle her schoolwork, while Jeff began to handle the logistics and would use his PTO to visit them with Taylor. The passion for the sport that had reignited in the relationship of Jeff and Eileen saw its fruition in their history-making daughter, Mikaela Shiffrin.

A tragic time for the family

Over the years, Jeff saw his daughter win one downhill, one super-G, and place fourth in a second downhill. She was at the pinnacle of her career, with her sights set on the fourth consecutive overall title. After spending some much-needed family time together in the resort town of Lake Garda, Italy, after the Bansko races, the family said goodbye to each other and made a promise to see each other in five weeks.? However Two days later, while Mikaela was training in Italy, she received a concerned call from her brother Taylor asking to speak urgently with their mom. Taylor told the two how Jeff had fallen and that they needed to return home immediately.

Jeff had sustained a head injury due to an accidental fall. The family spent Jeff?s last days together by his side as a family before he passed away on February 2, 2020. This shattered the family and left a huge void in their hearts. The pain of the loss was gut-wrenching for Eileen, who said, ?We learned quickly that people have their crosses to bear, and they aren?t everyone else?s crosses; they?re the ones we have to bear ourselves. You learn to suffer in silence?.

How Mikaela Shiffrin recovered from the devastation

For Mikaela Shiffrin, this devastating loss broke her heart. She even said she was left questioning how she could ever ski again. Mikaela stated that skiing was ?the place where I feel most connected to him. It?s kind of hard to feel that anywhere else?. She even shared that she was in the middle of a sports-illustrated photoshoot when her dad had the accident.

This left her feeling immense pain every time she would see her pictures from the shoot. Without her anchor, the grief would be so immense that she couldn’t even get out of bed, said her mother. Eileen even stated, ?She was so devastated. She couldn?t stop crying?.

However, Taylor, unable to see his sister reeling from the pain one day, suddenly walked over to his mom and Mikaela and told her ?You can’t quit on us?. He spoke in an interview, calling the moment his moment of “selfishness,” and said, It?s what his dad would also want and how he would?ve handled the situation.

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He said his dad would use the phrase he often used when they were children, which was ?When you?re going through hell, keep going. Don?t stop?. After a lengthy period of absence from the sport, she returned in 2021 for the first of the two slalom races at Levi.

In 2022, when she set the record for the most World Cup wins in Alpine skiing history, she honored her dad by writing on Instagram, ?Thank you. Dad, I hope you had a good view. Mom, your strength, love, support, and belief in me is the greatest treasure I?ll ever know?.

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