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The sudden demise of Mikaela Shiffrin’s father final 12 months had the celebrity Olympian questioning whether or not she would ever ski competitively once more.
With Thursday marking 100 days before the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Shiffrin shared on TODAY how a lot she struggled with discovering the motivation to proceed after her father, Jeff Shiffrin, died at 65 from a head injury suffered in an accident in Colorado.
“I puzzled if it was actually value it,” she instructed TODAY co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb. “There was a very very long time that I didn’t actually really feel prefer it was value it to care about something, so it appeared like I’m not going to go ski race once more as a result of essentially the most elementary factor of an athlete is that you must care about your sport and you must care about doing properly at your sport, and I simply didn’t.”
Shiffrin has already put collectively an unbelievable profession at solely 26 with two Olympic gold medals and one silver, which makes her “the most decorated U.S. alpine skier ever,” and three overall World Cup titles. She already has gained 70 World Cup races, the second-most all time by any feminine skier behind solely the 82 by retired legend Lindsey Vonn.
She thought of strolling away from all of it after shedding one among her greatest supporters. Her father was an anesthesiologist and an avid photographer who might typically be seen taking photos of his daughter on the medal podium after races.
“I simply thought I don’t care about truly actually something in life,” she mentioned. “It’s been an extended course of to get that motivation and truly the sensation of caring again. Much more good days than dangerous now, however it’s nonetheless tough.”
Following her father’s demise, Shiffrin shared a photograph on Instagram of him along with his digital camera, writing that her household was “heartbroken past comprehension.”
Shiffrin mentioned on TODAY his loss is “essentially the most tough factor” she has “ever survived.”
Over a 12 months and a half after shedding him, Shiffrin is true again to her successful methods. She gained her seventieth World Cup race final weekend when she took the ladies’s large slalom in Soelden, Austria.
She shared on TODAY that she has the lofty aim of competing in all six alpine snowboarding occasions on the Winter Olympics in February.
Shiffrin has additionally now reached a spot the place she will be able to converse concerning the devastation of shedding her father.
“It’s OK to speak about it,” she mentioned. “Over the past couple years it’s been vital to speak about, and lots of people truly appear to have the ability to relate to that on some degree as a result of apart from the pandemic, all people’s coping with one thing each day, on a weekly foundation, and there’s numerous loss and grief and disappointment on the market, however there’s additionally numerous energy and hope.
“And I feel it’s vital for us to all be capable of join on the extra constructive aspect of it.”
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