Future beyond skiing “Now I’m 30 … I won’t be ski racing forever … With Alex I have this picture of … love and family … being able to actually build something that I had when I was growing up.” 

Mikaela Shiffrin Opens Up About Life Beyond Skiing: “Love, Family, and Building Something Real”

At 30 years old, Mikaela Shiffrin stands as one of the most accomplished alpine skiers in history — a legend still in motion. Yet, as she continues to carve her name into the snow-covered slopes of the world, the American superstar is also beginning to imagine life beyond the sport that has defined her since childhood. In a recent conversation, Shiffrin offered a glimpse into her heart, revealing thoughts that reach far beyond medals and podiums. “Now I’m 30,” she said thoughtfully. “I won’t be ski racing forever. With Alex, I have this picture of love and family… being able to actually build something that I had when I was growing up.”

For a woman who has spent most of her life chasing hundredths of a second, it’s a quietly profound statement — a reminder that even the fiercest competitors eventually crave the steady rhythm of ordinary life.

A Career Defined by Perfection

Shiffrin’s journey has been nothing short of remarkable. From her early dominance as a teenage prodigy to her record-breaking World Cup victories, she has redefined what consistency and excellence mean in alpine skiing. With multiple Olympic gold medals and over 90 World Cup wins, she’s in a league of her own. But as her accomplishments pile up, so does her awareness of time.

“People see the victories, the celebrations, the trophies,” she reflected earlier this year. “But they don’t always see how consuming it all is — the travel, the recovery, the pressure. It’s been my life since I was a kid.”

It’s easy to forget that Shiffrin’s story has always carried a touch of solitude. While many of her peers balanced racing with social lives or education, her focus was singular: train, perform, repeat. That laser-like dedication helped her become one of the sport’s greatest athletes, but it also meant putting much of normal life on hold.

Finding Balance with Aleksander Aamodt Kilde

Enter Aleksander Aamodt Kilde — Norway’s alpine powerhouse and, over the last few years, Shiffrin’s partner both on and off the slopes. Their relationship, often described as authentic and grounded, has given Shiffrin something that competition alone could never provide: stability, understanding, and shared purpose.

“We understand each other because we live the same kind of life,” Shiffrin said in a previous interview. “When I’m exhausted or nervous before a race, he doesn’t need an explanation — he just gets it.”

Together, the couple has become one of the most beloved duos in the world of winter sports. Their social media moments — quiet laughter, training sessions, mutual encouragement — reveal two elite athletes who have learned to lean on each other in an environment that often tests emotional endurance as much as physical strength.

But what stands out now is Shiffrin’s growing desire to look past the adrenaline of competition. “With Alex,” she said softly, “I have this picture of love and family.” Those few words hold the weight of maturity — of someone who has achieved nearly everything in her field and now dares to imagine something deeper.

A Different Kind of Future

It’s a natural question for any athlete who reaches their thirties: what comes next? For Shiffrin, the answer isn’t about walking away but about expanding her world. She has hinted at mentoring younger athletes, advocating for mental health in sports, and possibly building a foundation that supports ski development at the grassroots level.

“I want to give back in ways that feel meaningful,” she explained recently. “Skiing gave me so much — discipline, purpose, joy. When the time comes to stop racing, I still want to be connected to that world.”

But beneath those professional ambitions lies something more personal. Shiffrin has spoken openly about the influence of her late father, Jeff Shiffrin, whose guidance shaped her both as a skier and as a person. His sudden passing in 2020 deeply changed her perspective on life and legacy. “My dad taught me that success isn’t just about being the best,” she once said. “It’s about being kind, about building something that lasts.”

That lesson, it seems, has taken root.

Lessons in Love and Loss

Shiffrin’s relationship with Kilde unfolded publicly but gracefully — a partnership built not on glamour but on mutual respect and quiet strength. When Kilde suffered a season-ending injury, Shiffrin was there for him, offering the same kind of steadfast support he had shown her through her own injuries and losses.

Those shared experiences have clearly shaped her outlook on what comes after the finish line. “It’s not about retiring or stopping,” she said earlier this year. “It’s about evolving. I think everyone reaches a point where they start to see life a little differently — not as a series of goals to check off, but as something to share.”

That sentiment feels especially resonant coming from an athlete whose every movement has been measured, analyzed, and perfected. For years, Shiffrin’s world revolved around fractions of seconds. Now, her gaze is shifting toward something more lasting — love, family, home.

The Human Side of Greatness

In an era where athletes are often defined by their achievements, Shiffrin’s honesty feels refreshing. She’s not just talking about skiing less — she’s talking about living more. About being present, cooking dinner with Kilde, spending time with family, maybe even raising one of her own someday.

“Being able to actually build something that I had when I was growing up,” she said, referring to her close-knit family life in Vermont. “That’s important to me. It’s what made me who I am.”

It’s easy to imagine Shiffrin in that next chapter — mentoring young athletes, perhaps working with children, creating a home filled with laughter rather than the echo of ski boots on tile. She may be a fierce competitor, but she’s also a woman who has learned that fulfillment isn’t only found at the top of a mountain.

A Legacy That Transcends the Slopes

Whether she races for another two years or six, Shiffrin’s legacy is already secure. She will be remembered not only for her records but for her poise, humility, and relentless pursuit of excellence. Yet perhaps her greatest contribution will come not from what she does next on the slopes, but what she builds beyond them — a life rooted in love, balance, and meaning.

As she steps into this new phase of her journey, Shiffrin’s reflection feels universal. We all outgrow the dreams that once defined us. The challenge, as she reminds us, is to replace them not with emptiness, but with purpose — to build something real.

For Mikaela Shiffrin, that future is not a finish line, but a beginning.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s her most beautiful victory yet.

At Home With the Shiffrins

Team Shiffrin

Mikaela’s mother reflects on the things she learnt while raising the greatest ski racer of all time.

Just before 4 p.m. on an August afternoon in Edwards, Eileen Shiffrin is seated in her living room, immersed in detailing the painstaking process of raising the world’s best ski racer—when, unexpectedly, the world’s best ski racer bursts through the door. “Mikaela, come say hello! ” She rants at her 26-year-old daughter, who lives with her. Mikaela says a quick hello as she scurries inside, apologising for having to leave again because a friend and neighbour (LEKI rep Charlie Webb) is trying to custom fit her shin guards in preparation for the coming winter. Mikaela is still over three months away from her first World Cup race and six months from the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing, but she is already feeling the crush—and rush—of expectations. Mom gives a knowing look before returning to her story.

Eileen has told several of these stories several times previously. Others, she is still unsure how to tell. This will be her second season as a single mom after her 34-year-old husband, Jeff, a Vail Health anaesthesiologist, died unexpectedly in February 2020. She enjoys reflecting on how she and Jeff raised Mikaela and her brother, Taylor, who is two and a half years older. Mikaela’s success as an Olympic champion was not unintended, but it was also not their goal.

“We just had so much fun skiing with them,” she explains simply. “However, others are constantly attempting to model their programs after how we achieved it. Stop right there! Parents should relax and enjoy the process when their children are young, regardless of the sport.”

Eileen Shiffrin at home in Edwards
Image: Brent Bingham

Jeff’s moustachioed countenance, which has been missing for more than a year, is reflected in framed images found in nearly every room of the exquisitely furnished, five-bedroom mountain modern home the Shiffrins built to replace their long-time family compound in nearby Eagle-Vail, where Mikaela and Taylor were raised. Eileen is proud that Mikaela created the bronze fireplace, and that several of her crystal globes are on exhibit downstairs, lighted and placed on a stacked-stone-wall trophy case. The three of them moved in during the summer of 2019, eight months before Jeff passed away. Eileen says adjusting to Jeff’s loss “was like getting a torpedo in the head and gut, over and over, for months on end.” They don’t often talk about the anguish they felt—and still experience. “We immediately realised that everyone has their own crosses to carry, and they are not the burdens of others; they are our own. “You learn to suffer in silence,” she admits.

Despite their pain and the way it has impacted their lives, the Olympics call. For Mikaela, the Beijing Games are her third and possibly best chance to maximise her talent on the sport’s most illustrious stage—which would entail winning multiple gold medals after winning one in each of her previous two Games. Shiffrin, who is likely to participate in up to five disciplines, all of which she has previously won on the World Cup, will once again be the face of the US delegation. Eileen, who has been by her daughter’s side on the slopes since Mikaela was in kindergarten, will play the same role as before, but Jeff will not. Win or lose, this usually secluded family will embark on a pivotal journey in front of the world’s eyes.

Three weeks before her father died, Mikaela Shiffrin was on pace to win her fourth straight World Cup overall title at the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Flachau, Austria, on January 14, 2020.
Image: Max Hall/U.S. Ski Team

To comprehend the hole left by Jeff’s death—the result of a head injury experienced in a fall—and why his absence had such a significant impact on his daughter’s ski racing career, consider the beginning of Team Shiffrin. In the summer of 1985, Jeff and Eileen worked at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Centre in Brighton, Massachusetts. He, a 31-year-old rising-star physician, was completing his cardiothoracic rotation; she, a 25-year-old ICU nurse, described him as “brilliant, jovial, and curious, with a solution to every problem.”

Eileen had skiing in her blood. Every autumn, her parents brought her and her three siblings up to Mt. Greylock, a pasture with two rope tows. They used sickles to clear the meadow grass and prepare the slope for snowfall. Eileen skied with secondhand gear and wore jeans, leather boots, and a black trash bag when it rained. She planned to race in college, but gave it up when she started nursing school. Jeff, a former FIS racer from Dover, New Jersey, invited her on a date to Killington and persuaded her to give it another shot. They had their first vacation as a couple in Aspen, which is one of the reasons Eileen has always expressed “a fondness and nostalgia” for the place. “If it wasn’t for Jeff, I wouldn’t have kept skiing,” she says. “He brought back my love of the sport.”

They married in 1986 and relocated to Vail five years later, each working at the Vail Valley Medical Centre. Taylor was born in 1992, and Mikaela arrived in 1995. Jeff and Eileen taught their children to ski and schooled them on family outings to Vail for years before enrolling them in what was then Ski Club Vail at the age of 9 and 7.

The Shiffrin family at home in Vail in 1999.
Image: Courtesy Eileen Shiffrin

The Shiffrin children made significant development under the direction of SCV’s Rika Moore, who guided a curriculum devised by the club’s Deb Flanders. Mikaela learnt to clear slalom gates before most coaches would let their pupils try. Jeff’s profession and familial ties eventually led them back to New England, where the children settled at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. Even after their family moved back to Vail in 2009, Mikaela returned to Burke, and Eileen accompanied her, homeschooling Mikaela in a leased condo and watching her training.

Mikaela was developing faster, and her parents worked hard to keep her grounded. They prevented her from studying the scoreboard following her victories, which included sweeping the famous Topolino races in Italy when she was 14. She was not permitted to celebrate. “It’s rude and inconsiderate,” they’d say, not to mention a waste of time. Jeff’s cardinal rule: “Be nice.” Think first. Mikaela had them put on a sticker and affixed to the back of her helmet after he passed away. Every day, he advised his children to “enjoy the process,” emphasising the process above the outcome. When Eileen and Jeff discussed skiing with Taylor and Mikaela, they formed their own language. “Knees to skis, take it deep,” they’d say. Or simply, “Swallow!” “—an SCV drill based on the bird’s wings tipping side to side during flight.”

Eileen was constantly monitoring their effort and performance. She wasn’t a whip cracker, but she knew what her children were capable of. If she felt they were falling short, she simply told them that it was always up to them to put in the effort necessary to realise their full potential. “That was all that was required,” says Taylor, who won two NCAA team championships with the University of Denver.

Mother and daughter time
Image: Brent Bingham

In March 2011, Mikaela’s first year in high school, the U.S. Ski Team selected a prize winner for a pair of World Cup tech events at Spindleruv Mlyn, Czech Republic. Eileen would soon become Mikaela’s full-time travel companion, but Jeff joined her on this trip and handled every detail. She finished 32nd in slalom, almost missing a second run.

The trip demonstrated what it takes to compete at the highest level, but they also shared beautiful moments as father and daughter, wandering through Prague and analysing video together. “I can’t imagine what it would have been like if he wasn’t there,” Mikaela tells me.

Mikaela went on to win the US national slalom title that spring, at the age of 16, and qualified for a full season on the World Cup. A few months later, she and her parents sat on their couch in Eagle-Vail, discussing how it might work. Mikaela and Eileen had already been studying video together every day, whether by phone or in person, and they were basically best friends. Given his responsibilities as a physician and associate professor at the University of Colorado, Jeff knew the only logical plan for their family was for Eileen to accompany Mikaela to Europe while he handled logistics from Vail, booking flights, lodging, and rental cars and removing distractions so they could focus on skiing. Mikaela began to call him “the Schedulizer.”

Eileen, who quit nursing after having Taylor, helped Mikaela with her schooling on the circuit. Jeff spent all of his PTO visiting them with Taylor, who raced on the NorAm Tour in addition to his time at DU. The family pondered moving to Europe to live together (Jeff even sought for work), but they loved Vail too much to leave.

People think we’re crazy because we’re so secretive, but our lifestyle is exhausting. So when we had the opportunity, we wanted to be together.

The highlight of their year was a two-month summer reunion. “We have always loved being together,” Eileen recalls from her living room. “We didn’t care if our children weren’t part of the group. We are the family that enjoys playing Rummikub. We do not feel obligated to go out on the town. We never felt the need to go downtown and show Mikaela off, especially since she’s [renowned]. People think we’re crazy because we’re so secretive, but our lifestyle is exhausting. So when we had the opportunity, we wanted to be together.”

As Mikaela’s career progressed and her World Cup victories piled up, the Shiffrins invited a small group of friends to join them for celebratory dinners at the conclusion of each winter. They’d toast a good season, safe return home, and enjoyment of the process. They never celebrated her individual achievements.

Team Shiffrin at the 2017 World Cup Finals in Aspen; after a second-place slalom finish, 22-year-old Mikaela became the youngest ski racer to win the overall World Cup title since 2003.
Image: Ryan Mooney/U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Parents rarely coach full-time for the World Cup, and when they do, fathers are more likely to maintain the position. (The mother of Slovenian racer Ilka Stuhec is the only mother who plays a role similar to Eileen’s.) During interviews, Eileen deflects credit, giving Mikaela’s two U.S. Mike Day and Jeff Lackie, the ski team coaches, work primarily with her. But those who know Eileen and understand the sport characterise her as a ski racing student in the same way that Billy Beane is a baseball student: fascinated with the obscure, always looking for the smallest advantage. She watches every racer in the field and has a keen sense of technique and speed, particularly what makes a ski racer fast. In the 1990s, she won two national titles as a masters racer and spent years competing in the local beer league, picking the brains of fellow enthusiasts on a daily basis. Though she keeps her basic coach’s licence from the United States. Eileen Shiffrin, of the Ski and Snowboard Association, is a natural sage rather than a professional examiner. This also applies to her function as motivator.

“I’ve always said Mikaela knows her body and herself better than anyone else, except maybe her mum,” adds Lackie, a former Canadian national team coach who specialises in speed disciplines. “Eileen does not coddle Mikaela, but she protects her. It sounds contradictory, yet it is not. Creating a sense of urgency and pushing her whenever she notices Mikaela becoming complacent is a distinguishing characteristic.”

Eileen does not coddle Mikaela, yet she protects her. It sounds contradictory, yet it is not. Creating a sense of urgency and pushing Mikaela anytime she detects complacency is a distinguishing feature.

“Mikaela needs Mom more than anyone,” says Taylor, 29, a data scientist and entrepreneur from Denver. “Why is it the case? Dad and I have several theories. We never talked much about it, but we knew Mom had to be there.

Despite Team Shiffrin’s success, Eileen always wanted to go back to nursing. So, in 2015, shortly after Mikaela turned 20, they decided to test a new system. Mikaela would “spread her wings and take off,” as Eileen puts it, while Eileen would retire from coaching to pursue her chosen job. Mikaela’s first World Cup race without her parents was at Åre, Sweden, in early December. Eileen sat down to watch from her mother’s house in Massachusetts at 4 a.m., when the SMS barrage started. Mikaela’s eyes were watering and hazy from an allergic reaction to poor cosmetics when she crashed while warming up in windblown snow, tearing her MCL. “I almost threw up when I found out,” Eileen admits, recoiling from the memories. Mikaela missed a significant portion of the season. She still believes she wouldn’t have crashed if her mother had been around to tell her to be cautious on the uneven terrain.

Eileen rejoined her daughter on tour once Mikaela returned to competition, and they decided to abandon the retirement plan. For the next four years, the technique delivered impressive results, including Mikaela’s breakout 2017 season, when she won her first overall title at the World Cup Finals in Aspen. Then in October 2019, Eileen’s mother, Mikaela’s “Nana” and biggest fan, passed away. Eileen and Jeff decided it might be time to try retirement again. Eileen leaned on Jeff while she mourned her loss at home. Mikaela’s skiing got worse across the Atlantic. She finished 17th in a race at Courchevel, France, in December, which was a shocking performance for the three-time defending overall World Cup winner.

Eileen returned to Europe, and Mikaela finished on the podium in seven of the next ten races, winning four. Her record came to an end on the notorious Bansko Speedway in Bulgaria in the last week of January 2020, with her father in attendance. “Bansko was the one place Jeff had always wanted to see Mikaela compete,” she adds.

Jeff saw his daughter win her first two speed races of the year, a downhill and a super-G, before finishing fourth in a second downhill. She was in good position to win her fourth consecutive overall title.

Following the Bansko races, Jeff spent a few days relaxing in Lake Garda, Italy, with Eileen and Mikaela. They had came to Lake Garda as a young family to windsurf 18 years ago, and Jeff and Eileen reminisced about their vacation while wandering around the lake. “We loved having him there,” Eileen recalls. When they said their goodbyes, they intended to see each other in five weeks.

Two days later, while training in Folgaria, Italy, Mikaela received a call from Taylor asking to speak with their mother, whom he had been unable to contact. Taylor informed Eileen that his father had collapsed and that she and Mikaela needed to return home immediately. They all got to be together again before Jeff died on February 2.

Mikaela Shiffrin training for the 2022 Winter Games with the U.S. Ski Team at Saas-Fee, Switzerland, in September
Image: Ryan Mooney/U.S. Ski & Snowboard

Mikaela returns home from her shinguard fitting just after 5 p.m. The Olympic winner sits on the couch, sipping orange seltzer and sporting red nail polish. She and her mother instantly begin recalling the chronological order of her early career. After a few minutes, Eileen rises from her chair and walks over to sit with her daughter on the couch. They’re both wearing white tank tops and share a striking resemblance—wavy blond hair, dazzling eyes, and movie-star smiles.

In a few weeks, the circus will relaunch in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, for training with the US. Ski Team, then home for Taylor’s September wedding at Piney Lake and a few preseason fundraisers, then to Austria for the season opener in early October, all leading up to China in February. The Olympics are a massive logistical question mark; according to information obtained by the Shiffrins from local coaches, there were only three days in February last year when alpine races could have been held due to high winds at the Olympic venue. This year, they plan to hold 11 races in two weeks.

Eileen frequently prepares her kid for a roller coaster ride, both literally and mentally. At the age when many of her friends are retiring, Eileen, 62, is as active as she has ever been. She’s still heartbroken. “We’re not over the grief,” she adds from the couch. “You don’t get over the grief,” she says, “but you get over a hump.”

“And you find a way to survive it,” Eileen explains. “Especially with a community like this. It helped a lot. People came out of the woodwork to offer, “Oh, your microwave is broken; don’t worry; we can help with that and this.”

Mikaela won two World Cup events and four medals at the World Championships last winter, including gold in combined, but her overall placing of third was disappointing for such a decorated champion. “She was finding her way back,” explains Day, who manages her technical program. “I think last year was survival to a certain extent.”

The last few years have reinforced my belief that I couldn’t finish my career without my mother’s presence.

Mikaela is now in better shape than she has ever been heading into a season. Taylor, who frequently visits Edwards, claims she buried him in the same test he used to bury her. This summer, she worked out alongside her boyfriend, Norway’s gigantic 2019 overall World Cup champion, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde. “It’s a significant change. “It doesn’t even feel like she’s the same athlete,” says Lackie, Shiffrin’s strength and conditioning coach. “But for sure, it took a full year before I could see the light return to her eyes.”

Someday, the Shiffrin women will retire from ski racing and focus on schussing for leisure, as they do every spring with a small group of friends in Aspen. Mikaela had considered going to medical school, like her father. Spending 220 days per year on the road takes its toll. But for the time being, there are still records to break and a goal that takes complete dedication—from both persons. “The last couple years have solidified even more that I can’t imagine finishing my career without my mum being there,” Mikaela reports. “I have physios, coaches, and plenty of people who literally bend over backwards to help, but they can’t replace what she does when she’s there. It’s impossible to explain everything she does.”

Eileen, sitting a foot away, interjects: “Let’s just suppose, theoretically—I’m not pushing this at all—in a couple years, my eyesight, memory, and joints deteriorate, but you’re still kicking butt. You could talk with the other girls about it.”

“I know,” Mikaela responds. “There is a possibility that it could work, but I don’t see any reason for us to investigate it. Because what is the point? We know what works, so there’s no reason not to keep continuing.