"You never feel you are doing enough" - Mikaela Shiffrin gives her take on pressure of being an 'individual' athlete after Worlds team combined gold

One of the greatest alpine ski racers, Mikaela Shiffrin, recently shared her thoughts on her returning to competition and navigating the pressure of being an athlete. This comes on the back of the three-time Olympian securing a gold medal with downhill champion Breezy Johnson at the Alpine skiing world championships.

Last year, Shiffrin suffered a critical puncture wound and muscle injury to her stomach during her giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. She underwent surgery and made a comeback after recovering. At the 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in Saalbach, Austria, she clinched the top position with Breezy Johnson in the team combined event. According to BBC, Shiffrin expressed her thoughts on being an athlete and winning after facing mental struggles.

“As an individual athlete, you never feel you are doing enough. Be faster, fix other things, there's always things to work on. You're living in this world, a very critical world, and you just never feel good enough. But I could really lean on Breezy. I wanted to do well for her and she felt the same for me,” she said.

The seven-time gold medallist from the World Championships further reflected the mindset of an athlete who always aspires for excellence and is their own worst critic. Shiffrin also shared that she wanted to excel with Johnson and that their mindset was mutually directed at their goals. The prominent ski racer from Colorado has 18 global medals and 99 World Cup wins. She also has eleven discipline titles and five overall Crystal Globes.

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Mikaela Shiffrin shares her perspective on encountering criticism

Mikaela Shiffrin at the Previews - Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Soelden - Source: Getty

Mikaela Shiffrin is a legendary skier who has achieved multiple accolades throughout her career. She has 62 World Cup slalom wins, six of which she achieved at Killington. In an appearance on the “Wondery” podcast, Shiffrin shared her thought process on manoeuvring through criticism and also expressed what she feels is the mentality behind the analysis.

“Those were the comments that I would see that I was like 'oh my god'. Everybody goes through highs and lows, and in the highs, in the great moments, the media and all of the fans, everyone's like they're unstoppable, they're unbeatable and in the low moments, they're like they're never coming back. It’s one of the most predictable human functions or patterns, I think,” she said [23:48 onwards].

Mikaela Shiffrin has also set a record at Levi, Finland by clinching eight World Cup slalom wins and the FIS World Cup record for the most wins in a season with 17 wins. Through her viewpoints, Shiffrin shared that judging athletes goes through two emotional extremes and that it is a common impression of human behaviour.