Mikaela Shiffrin Leaned On Family After Father’s Tragic Death

Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin is gearing as much as compete within the Beijing Winter Games and as with all the other Olympic athletes, she’ll be going with out her household resulting from Covid-19 security measures. It’ll undoubtedly be a problem for her, after all, however the previous two years have most definitely proven Shiffrin and her household that they’ll deal with it. Significantly after tragically dropping her father in 2020. However let’s have a look again at the place the American alpine skier’s unbelievable journey started.

She Began Snowboarding As A Toddler

Shiffrin was born in Vail, Colorado to folks Eileen and Jeff Shiffrin. In keeping with her Group USA bio, the 26-year-old athlete first took to her skis when she was simply 2 years previous, snowboarding down her dad and mom’ driveway. She went on to compete in her first World Cup when she was simply 15 years previous, and has gone on to win 5 World Championships and three Olympic medals thus far.

The household lived in Vail till shifting to New Hampshire when Mikaela was 8 years previous, however they at all times managed to seek out methods to ski collectively irrespective of the place they lived. As a result of clearly the household that skis collectively, stays collectively the place the Shiffrins are involved.

Her Massive Brother Taylor Is Additionally A Skier

Taylor Shiffrin can be a passionate skier, attending the Burke Mountain Academy, a ski academy in northern Vermont, all through his highschool years. He went on to race for the University of Denver, and in September 2021 married Kristiana Oslund in Vail, Colorado together with his household by his facet.

Her Dad and mom’ Eileen & Jeff Shiffrin Discovered A Shared Ardour In Snowboarding

When Jeff Shiffrin met Eileen in 1985, she hadn’t been on the slopes in years regardless of her previous as a member of her highschool ski staff. She was a nurse at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston, and when Jeff, an anesthesiologist, took her on a date, he reintroduced her to snowboarding at Killington Mountain in Vermont. They married in 1986 and made snowboarding a central a part of their social life.

Once they welcomed their two youngsters, Taylor in 1992 and Mikaela in 1995, they merely took their youngsters alongside on the slopes with them. Safely after all. “It was at all times ‘Observe me’ or ‘Observe Mother,’” dad Jeff instructed Sports activities Illustrated in 2014. “They didn’t get an opportunity to make too many turns with out someone who had an terrible lot of curiosity of their security and progress instructing them learn how to do it proper.”

Each Eileen and Jeff have been at all times readily available to assist Mikaela’s snowboarding profession, at all times in her nook along with her mom managing the World Cup logistics and her dad staying on the sidelines to take images and ensure their lives ran easily. Till tragedy struck in February 2020.

Jeff Shiffrin Tragically Died In An Accident

In February 2020, Jeff Shiffrin died after struggling an accident on the household’s Colorado residence. The Eagle County coroner instructed The Aspen Instances that Jeff had died of a brain injury. “My household is heartbroken past comprehension concerning the sudden passing of my kindhearted, loving, caring, affected person, fantastic father,” Mikaela wrote of her father’s death in an emotional Instagram submit. “Our mountains, our ocean, our dawn, our coronary heart, our soul, our every little thing. He taught us so many useful classes…however above every little thing else, he taught us the golden rule: be good, suppose first. That is one thing I’ll carry with me endlessly. He was the agency basis of our household and we miss him terribly.”

It was an particularly terrible time for the household, dropping Jeff only one month earlier than Covid-19 modified the world. Two years later, they’re nonetheless processing their monumental grief.

After dropping her dad, Mikaela believed she might never ski again. “I puzzled if it was actually price it,” she instructed TODAY in October 2021. “There was a very very long time that I didn’t actually really feel prefer it was price it to care about something, so it appeared like I’m not going to go ski race once more as a result of probably the most basic factor of an athlete is that it’s a must to care about your sport and it’s a must to care about doing effectively at your sport, and I simply didn’t.”

Shedding one among her largest followers, her dad, had her questioning her lengthy snowboarding profession. However ultimately, she got here again to the game they’d beloved collectively. “It’s been a protracted course of to get that motivation and really the sensation of caring again. Much more good days than unhealthy now, nevertheless it’s nonetheless troublesome,” she instructed TODAY.

Mikaela Discovered Her Personal Love On The Slopes

Final summer time, as Mikaela was coaching to move to the Beijing Olympics, she discovered a brand new motive to smile. She began dating Norwegian downhill skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde after the 2 appeared in an advert for Oakley sun shades collectively. Mother Eileen credited this new relationship with serving to her daughter “get to the opposite facet” as she handled the lack of her dad. “Aleks is without doubt one of the first individuals who Mikaela loved speaking to after Jeff’s accident,” Eileen stated in a clip from Mikaela’s new Outside TV’s docuseries. “I beloved seeing that as a result of she had been unhappy for too lengthy.”

After every little thing Mikaela and her household have been by, they deserve a bit happiness. And whereas they gained’t be along with her when she competes in Beijing beginning on Feb. 6, they’ll all be watching and cheering her on from afar.