Mikaela Shiffrin long has been open about the mental hurdles and psychological barriers she has had to navigate en route to becoming the best female skier on the planet. As she prepares to return to competition next week following the death of her father, she knows grief will accompany her on every race.
“A lot of people have asked how we are doing and where we are in the grieving process,” Shiffrin said in a video shared on social media Thursday. “The truth is we haven’t really even started. ... Accepting this new reality is going to take a long time.”
In the 6½-minute video, the 24-year-old skier is seated under a photo of her father and reading a prepared statement, thanking fans for their support. She announced that she’s headed back to Europe and hasn’t ruled out returning to racing this season. Her agent, Kilian Albrecht, told The Post she intends to compete at a World Cup event that begins next week in Sweden.
“There is no doubt that we are broken, and it will take a long time to pick the pieces up and put them together,” Shiffrin said in the video. “They won’t fit together as they did before, but, maybe like a piece of Kintsugi art, we will still be able to find beauty in our lives.”
Jeff Shiffrin died Feb. 2 from a head injury suffered in an accident at the family’s home. Shiffrin was halfway across the world when she received the news and immediately returned to Colorado. She hasn’t raced since Jan. 26.
“As far as racing goes, I am flying to Scandinavia today,” she said in the video. “I have no promises if I’ll actually be able to race. I don’t really even have goals. Any time the topic of winning would come up in the conversation with my dad, he would always say, ‘But, did you make any good turns?’ That’s sort of the basis of our family’s entire philosophy. So I guess, that would be my goal: I just want to make a few good turns. I think that would make him happy.”
Though Shiffrin was noncommittal on her return in the video, the New York Times first reported that she plans to compete in Are, Sweden, on March 12-14. Her mother, Eileen, is accompanying her on the trip. The World Cup finals are scheduled for one week later in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, though organizers there are still considering their options in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Shiffrin, winner of the last three World Cup overall titles, was in the midst of another dominant season when she left the race circuit last month. She was leading the World Cup standings by 370 points, though she now trails Italy’s Federico Brignone by 153.
Shiffrin said she has done some training in recent weeks but called it a “slow process.”
“I have struggled with being able to maintain my focus as long as I normally can. But it’s been therapeutic to be on the mountain, maybe even healing,” Shiffrin said. “I’ve found training to be a place where I can feel closer to my dad, yet it provides enough of a distraction so that feeling of closeness can be separated from the pain.”
The Washington Post’s Barry Svrluga contributed to this report.
