Mikaela Shiffrin on Ski Racing, Impalements, and How She Burns Through 80 Skis a Season

Flames roared in a fireplace while I waited quietly in Mikaela Shiffrin’s basement. Christmas decor was up, and workout and recovery tools lay scattered about. The other four journalists and I had been urged to remove our shoes and speak only in whispers while we waited for our turn to interview the two-time Olympic gold medalist, five-time Overall World Cup champion, and adidas Terrex-sponsored alpine ski racer, in her home.

Shiffrin was fresh out of surgery and 2 weeks to the day past her potentially season-ending crash in Killington, Vermont, when she was impaled and rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. On Dec. 12, she underwent a second surgery to remove fluid that hadn’t been properly drained from the wound initially.

We were all surprised she still wanted to do these interviews just 2 days later.

But it was the weekend of the Stifel Birds of Prey Audi FIS Ski World Cup, and Shiffrin’s tenacious attitude toward media engagement is a lot like her attitude on the slopes — she doesn’t give up. I’d soon find out why.

I was distracting myself from the peculiar situation by staring in awe at the five crystal globes prominently displayed on Shiffrin’s basement wall. They were World Cup trophies. I’d never been so close to one in person.

In fact, I realized looking around, almost every shelf and surface of Shiffrin’s house seemed to have a ski trophy on it. Apparently, she gives many of them away, but she still can’t stop them from stacking up. G.O.A.T. problems, I guess.

I glanced at my notes — two full pages of questions. I’d only have 10 minutes with the ski racer when it was finally my turn. There was no way I was getting through the full interview I had written. So, I started mentally prioritizing what I needed to ask and what topics I’d been asked to avoid.

Eventually, someone tapped me on the shoulder and whispered, “You’re up.” It was showtime.

I was escorted up the stairs to the living room, where a small crowd of cameras, ring lights, photographers, PR people, and assistants shuffled about. At the center of the scene sat Shiffrin on a throne-like couch in one corner. She smiled as I lowered myself onto the ottoman before her, and the clock started ticking on my 10 minutes.

Q&A With Mikaela Shiffrin

Will Brendza (GearJunkie ski editor): How’s it going, Mikaela? How are you feeling?

Mikaela Shiffrin: I’m feeling pretty good, actually. I have a bit of the local lidocaine numbing on, so I’m not in a ton of pain, which is great. I had a little coughing fit before you guys all came over, and that was not good. That did not feel good.

Ouch. I can only imagine how much coughing hurts right now.

Also laughing. The other night, we put on the Jamie Foxx special. It was actually before the surgery … I was laughing so hard at some points — oh, my God. That might have actually been what triggered my symptoms the next day, like the soreness and chills and everything.

I want to know about your gear. When you’re choosing a race ski for the day, do you have a favorite pair that you use most often, or do you choose from a quiver based on the day, conditions, and race course?

I have a favorite ski construction — for slalom and basically for every event. Through a season, I’ll go through probably 80 pairs of skis, including all the events. And that’s from the start of the summer to the end of the season. Every ski has a lifetime.

Our technicians will file the edges down and you just get to a point where you don’t have any edge left. The ski, the more you ski it, it kind of loses a little bit of life. Sometimes that’s really good. But sometimes you actually want a fresher ski. So it all very much depends on the snow conditions.

What are your ski construction preferences for different conditions?

I have almost like a podium of my favorite skis for certain conditions. And it can get pretty complicated pretty fast. Because you have the bindings, you have the plate under the bindings, you have the ski construction based off the materials that are layered into it, and you have side cut. You have the rocker in the tip, and at what point does that make contact with the snow, tail width, all of these different things, right?

So, ahead of a race, are you running calculations through your head as far as which ski to use?

Sort of. I think once we get to race time, we’ve done enough training to sort of know, we’ve got these three ski constructions that we have planned for options. And, like I said, it can get really complicated. The chances of finding a perfect ski and boot combo setup for every single race is like zero.

So you have to also trust your instincts, go with your gut, and also trust that you, as a skier, can make adjustments if something feels a little funky. But, yeah, my equipment really covers the bases for most conditions.

Are your ski constructions custom just for you?

I guess it’s custom but for an actual World Cup race-level ski. You wouldn’t necessarily be able to buy my GS ski race construction at a ski shop.

But recreational skis are really built based off of what works in the race setup. The research and development department at every ski company will take the information that they get from the racer skis and from the testing that we do, and they will actually put that into the technology in any ski that you can just go and buy in the store.

How about bindings? Do you always crank your DIN to the maximum?

Our race bindings, the DIN goes up to like 24. Most recreational bindings go to 12 or 14. It’s just because of the amount of force that we’re really putting into it and how demanding those forces and the conditions that we’re skiing on are. So, yeah, my bindings are set pretty high.

Do you own any regular skis?

I do. I think it’s the Atomic Redster G9, which makes a perfect, wonderful GS turn. And that is actually the ski that I have the most fun skiing on, way more than my race skis.

Do you actually get free ski days when you get to just go have fun? Or is it all training and racing through ski season?

Not a lot, but in the springtime when I come home, if there’s still snow on the mountains, I’ll try to go free ski then.

OK. So, when you do get to go freeskiing, what kind of gear do you wear?

Well, it changes here and there. But with my partnership with Terrex, I have a wonderful wardrobe of a bunch of different options. Recently this new Stella McCartney/adidas Terrex collab has been my favorite.

And when I’m racing, you know, I have the gear from our team, and that’s kind of a separate thing. But when I’m out free skiing, and I’m skiing for myself, this Stella/Terrex collab is it … that’s going to be my go-to for a really long time. Probably until the next Stella/Terrex collab.

Moving beyond gear — Imagine it’s the night before a big race. What is your routine?

Our pre-race routines are pretty dictated by the schedule. We’ll normally go out for training. There’s usually some kind of an evening program, like a big draw that we need to go to. So the day is actually pretty mapped out between training most of the morning into midday, early afternoon, lunch, ideally a little bit of a rest or a nap, and then pre-race activation to get the neuromuscular connection going.

What does that mean by that last part?

Well, we have the normal workouts that we do, which might be core work, leg strength, cardio-based, or maybe intervals. And then we have these pre-race activations, which are not meant to be extremely strenuous or taxing. They’re sort of short bursts of high-intensity work, like plyometrics.

They’re usually pretty short sessions, but the idea is to basically prime your neuromuscular system to be at its quickest and at peak performance. So it’s basically, it’s like a 20-minute warmup for race day, 24 hours beforehand.

How about on race day? What kind of preparation do you do beforehand?

On race day, I go through the normal warmup and everything. Make sure [my] body’s feeling good and warm and limber. The older I get, the longer that warmup takes.

I definitely suggest [a warm-up] for anyone going skiing. Some people think, “Oh, I’m not doing anything too intense. I can just go out there.” I suggest doing a warm-up always, even if it’s 15 minutes of some basic movement, core work, and mobility. It goes a long way.

I’m running out of time, but I saved a hard one for last. At this point, you’ve become an icon in the long history of this sport. When you think about your legacy or your impact on skiing, what do you want people to remember about your career and you as a skier?

You picked the humdinger. I guess I just want to exist in life … with honesty and having kindness for others and a willingness to be open to others. It’s [important] connecting with fans and connecting with media and connecting with everybody who wants to tell our stories in this sport and share the sport with the world.

I suppose that’s not really about legacy, but I am really passionate, obviously, about this sport. And I’m becoming more and more passionate about trying to share it with the world as much as possible and make it more accessible to more people because it’s been such a gift in my life. I feel like that’s a gift that a lot of people could benefit from physically, mentally, emotionally.

There are so many incredible aspects of getting outdoors, being adventurous, and being in the world of winter sports, and that’s just beautiful to me. It goes beyond ski racing, but absolutely, ski racing has been one of the biggest gifts of my life.