What We Can Learn From Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympics

If you’re anything like us, you’ve been glued to your TV to watch all the incredible athletes competing in the Winter Olympics. Watching athletes achieve their biggest dreams is always something to celebrate. But that’s not always the story.

Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin is a 3-time Olympic medalist (2 gold) and has 73 wins to her name on the World Cup circuit. Simply put: she’s one of the greatest alpine skiers of all time. However, she’s has a rough go in Beijing, skiing out of 3 races, including her premier event, the slalom.

Let’s talk about what we can learn from Mikaela’s performances at these Olympics:

• Failure happens, and it’s OK to be disappointed.

Not every race or game is going to be your best, and that’s OK. Mikaela’s performances in Beijing do not diminish the legacy she’s created for herself. Her gold medals don’t shine less brightly. Her 73 World Cup wins and 3 overall World Cup titles don’t vanish. Each and every one of us, just like Mikaela, will eventually experience a time when we don’t reach our goal or have the performance we trained to have.

And guess what? It’s OK to be disappointed. It’s OK to have feelings. And it’s OK to talk about it. We are all real people with real feelings, including Olympians. And Mikaela’s willingness to share her true experience - and lift others up - is brave and real.

• Your support system is everything.

When you experience disappointment or failure, you shouldn’t have to process it alone. Think about your front row - those people that support you in the front row of whatever you’re doing, no matter the outcome. They’ll be there at the end of the day no matter what.

After her slalom race, Mikaela’s partner Alexander Kilde shared a message about the pressure athletes face and the support we can offer them, through all of their results, not just the wins. This is so important. As an athlete, make sure your front row is people who are there for you for all the ups and downs. And as a teammate, be sure to offer support to your fellow athletes, not just when they win but also when they need extra support.

• Getting back up is the most important thing you can do for yourself.

After the slalom, anyone might have understood if Mikaela sat out her next event to give herself time to recover. But she fought back and finished in 9th in the Super G. Mikaela herself said it best:

There’s a lot of disappointment and heartbreak going around in the finish area, but there’s also a lot of support. And most importantly, every day there are at least a few spectacular and inspirational performances that we all get to witness and admire.

Failure happens. Disappointment happens. But if you don’t get back up to try again, you deny yourself the opportunity to find success or inspiration in your next race. And remember, success can look differently! Of course success can look like a gold medal or a personal best, but sometimes success can be as simple as making it through a race during a difficult time or just getting through a tough workout.

• Mental health matters - and we still have work to do.

Last but certainly not least, mental health matters. Athletes are people. Olympians are people. YOU are a person deserving of support and respect. Mikaela shared some of the horrible comments she received during the Olympics on her Instagram. Nobody deserves to be treated that way. From Simone Biles last summer to Mikaela Shiffrin now, it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do in supporting athletes through all the ups and down of sport.

We all deserve to feel supported through wins AND losses. When we perform our absolute best and when we might fail to reach our goals. And we owe that not only to ourselves, but to our teammates and the elite athletes who represent their countries.

We’ll never stop fighting for this: The mental game is just as important as the physical one.

We’ll leave you with one last quote from Mikaela and hope that her grit, tenacity, and grace for herself can inspire you today:

Get up, again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Get up because you can, because you like what you do... Just get up. It’s not always easy, but it’s also not the end of the world to fail… I come back because those first 9 turns today were spectacular, really heaven. That’s where I’m meant to be.