Mikaela Shiffrin Wins Gold by Record Margin at 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics

“I WON.” That was the brief statement and social media post made by the latest woman to bring the Midas Touch back to the United States. On Wednesday, Mikaela Shiffrin won gold by a record margin at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.

Shiffrin is no stranger when it comes to standing on top of the podium. Mikaela is an Olympic slalom champion for the second time and a four-time Olympic medalist. She is the second skier, man or woman, to win gold twice in slalom.

Therefore, this legend is returning to the top of the podium 12 years after her first gold in 2014. Additionally, Mikaela Shiffrin is now the youngest (18) and oldest (30) American ever to win Gold in the slalom. And she did it in dominant fashion, blasting away her competition with her time.

Shiffrin won her golden victory by 1.50 seconds, the largest margin in any Olympic Alpine skiing event since 1998. She is the first U.S. skier to win three Olympic gold medals; now holding the record for the most gold medals in U.S. alpine skiing history. Rodger Sherman who researches interesting tidbits when it comes to Olympics statistics had this to say about Mikaela. He mentions,

“Mikaela Shiffrin wins the slalom gold medal by 1.50 seconds.

If you add up the winning margins of the winners at the 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022 women’s slalom, you get 1.51 seconds.”

Now that is wild. Shows just how tough of an athlete Mikaela is and just how well she performed.

Mikaela Shiffrin Wins Gold by Record Margin at 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics

After her historic win Mikaela talked to the media and reflected on how this Olympics has helped with the loss of her father. TIME magazine recounts,

When alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin last won an Olympic gold medal, in PyeongChang eight years ago, her father Jeff—known throughout the skiing community for both his unyielding fandom of his phenom daughter and his passion for ski-racing photography—put his hands on his hat in the South Korea cold. “Oh my God!” he yelled.

Two years later, in 2020, Jeff Shiffrin died suddenly, in an accident in his Colorado home. He was 65. Jeff was the one who put Mikaela on skis when she was 2.

So it was only fitting that nearly a decade since that day in South Korea, Mikaela Shiffrin movingly talked about her father on Wednesday, after she won the Olympic gold medal in the slalom race in Cortina d’Ampezzo.”

Regarding her race and the memory of her father, Mikaela Shiffrin emotionally stated,

“This was a moment I have dreamed about,” she told the assembled media in Cortina. “I’ve also been very scared of this moment. Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It’s like being born again. I still have so many moments where I resist this. I don’t want to be in life without my dad.” She fought back tears. “And maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this reality,” she said.  “Instead of thinking I would be going in this moment without him, to take the moment to be silent with him.”

Wow. What courage. Congratulations to this amazing woman!

**Want Even More Sports, News, Hot Takes, Stats as well as Athlete Celebrity Sighting Updates; Insights as well as Trends? Well, be sure to join all of us Sports Feens over on Youtube to get an additional sports fix; and also don’t forget to check out all of our new Podcast topics and episodes. Plus, get fast highlights and trivia daily by following us on TikTok. Just Click HERE**