Mikaela Shiffrin was throwing up before almost every race, drowning in performance anxiety no one could see.
The world’s winningest alpine skier reveals why thinking about winning made her lose, how her mom taught her to master the mental game, and why she didn’t want to break the all-time wins record.
She won a race by three seconds after an injury and the world called her slow for only winning the next one by seven tenths. Shiffrin opens up about the choking sensation that triggered her gag reflex, the sports psychologists who helped her reframe fear, and why she hopes people debate the greatest of all time forever.
This is about the gap between external success and internal struggle and what it takes to stay human under superhuman pressure.
