Mikaela Shiffrin secures gold medal in the Winter Olympics

Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the top of the podium in alpine skiing for the women’s slalom event on Wednesday at the Winter Olympics.

As she waited for her moment, her coach told her to “rip this thing.” She certainly did.

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Shiffrin posted an overall time of 1:39.10 after going down the hill with a time of 47.13 on her first run and 51.97 on her second. She catapulted herself into gold medal position and added to Team USA’s medal total.

After a disastrous run in the 2022 Beijing Games, Shiffrin was able to keep her composure and deliver an incredible run to win the gold. But she had to wait a few agonizing seconds as the two competitors in front of her failed to clear the course.

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Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States at the finish line of an alpine skiing women’s slalom race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Shiffrin locked in and even gained time on his competitors in parts of the course. She bent down almost in disbelief, realizing the incredible moment she was making.

It wasn’t that long ago when Shiffrin had a shocking outing in the 2022 Games, failing to reach the podium in any of the alpine skiing events, despite being considered one of the all-time greats in her sport. Now she can call herself a three-time gold winner.

She is the second Olympic skier to win gold twice in the event.

USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin, center, winner of an alpine skiing women’s slalom race, celebrates with second-placed Switzerland’s Camille Rast, left, and third-placed Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 2026. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

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The Swiss Camille Rast finished second with a silver and the Swedish Anna Larsson Swenn secured the bronze medal.