“Brings More Pain and Sadness”: Three Years After Father’s Death, Mikaela Shiffrin Breaks Down in an Emotional Confession

Losing a loved one is never easy, especially when it happens unexpectedly. The Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin was in Europe when a shocking phone call informed her about her father’s accident. The American skier and her mother made it to their family’s Colorado home before Jeff Shiffrin passed away from a brain injury. Jeff was an anesthesiologist and a supportive dad for Shiffrin teaching her many invaluable life lessons coupled with clinical training methods for the alpine skier. At 65, Jeff left the world with many memories to remember him by.

With 88 medals in her skiing career, Mikaela has evolved under her dad’s shadow who focused on one golden rule: be nice, think first. Her father’s demise took a huge toll on her as being pampered and forever supported was the two things he promised being in the background his entire life. The American skier often remembers him publicly, recently, ahead of fathers Day on June 18, she took to Instagram to talk about him.

Olympic gold medalist’s heart to heart conversation on the Internet

Shiffrin poured her heart out sitting on a chair wearing a white tee as she recorded the 1:47 minutes stories, saying, “So fathers day *takes a pause* is interesting, it definitely brings more pain and sadness and than it ever used to. I feel like a a lot of people out there understand that feeling and this is meant to be a day that celebrated that honors somebody we love dearly. And for a lot of us its a reminder of what we have lost in our lives. And it doesn’t you know…for some people maybe you did not lose your dad but lost your mother and thinking of your dad reminds you of your mother. For some its a sibling or could be someone else in their lives but we tend to think about those we love while thinking about those we love and that can be really hard.” 

In her second story captioned #fathersdaypt2, she adds- “Something that has helped me a little bit is kinda just to think that it is always so worth celebrating the people that we love on any day. But on these days are meant to honor them is so worth celebrating them even if we lost them and it does… It does help, it kinda  puts a spin on in my mind makes it a lot about what I feel and a lot more about what it’s meant to be. And it is hard but it’s, I also gives us a chance to put..put our thoughts in our minds to honoring those people  for any of you out there who are really missing somebody today I am with you and Dad I really love you and I really really miss you.”

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The finest Alpine skier’s life had long-lasting turbulence from the sudden loss, and it took her a long time to get back to skiing. The skiing world was deprived of Shiffrin’s presence when she took a break to grieve her father’s death. Shiffrin recalls a proud grin curling behind his bushy mustache, an ever-present camera strap looped over his neck, and hitting the slopes with family. In a previous interview, she admitted, “It’s still pretty painful to think about, so I don’t think about it too much.”  With mixed flooding memories which can be overwhelming, the skier returned to the slopes to make her father proud yet again.

Mikaela Shiffrin shows up strong after a long break

Five weeks after the incident, the champion skied again in Sweden for the mid-March competitions. Having given up her lead to Federica Brignone in the overall standings and to Petra Vlhova in the slalom standings. The coronavirus pandemic, however, forced the cancellation of the Swedish tournament and the rest of the season. Shiffrin was able to take some time off work due to the epidemic in order to relax and rejuvenate.

Her career highlights since 2020 include, winning the 84th World Cup win in women’s slalom at the Kronplatz World Cup race in Italy in January 2023, and a gold medal in the women’s giant slalom at the World Championships in February 2023. On March 2021, Shiffrin also won her fifth overall World Cup title. While she continued to contemplate her big return, the slopes never shied away from accepting her as the designated queen every time she returns.

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