It was in March 2011, when a mere 15-year-old girl called Mikaela Shiffrin entered the World Cup stage. Today, we know her as a one-in-a-century-athlete. Mikaela Shiffrin is here to reset the sport.
Two-time Olympic champion. Seven-time World Champion. Most wins in one discipline. The 29-year-old American also has the most World Cup podiums under her belt. Now, she’s reset the sport with a generation-defining achievement — 100 World Cup wins. It’s an incredible milestone not just for skiing, but the wider world of sport.
But for Mikaela, statistics don’t make the skier. She’d sooner connect a perfect turn than capture another record: “I see this 100-victory conversation as an opportunity to bring more eyes and, ideally, more passion to the sport. I’d like to turn the spotlight to something bigger than me.”
In her success, Mikaela has found the perfect way to inspire the next generation: through the Share Winter Foundation. By delivering sports programs and grants for outreach initiatives, the Share Winter Foundation strives to make winter sports accessible to a broader, more diverse community, and in October 2024, Mikaela signed up as an official ambassador for the organisation.
“I’m not a big fan of focusing on records or numbers, but I do understand the importance of using my platform to raise awareness for causes that are bigger than me and these statistics,” explains Mikaela. “I love this sport, and it’s so important to me that I try to have an impact on helping to grow it, and provide more access to the mountains and winter as a whole. Helping Share Winter bring more kids to the mountain is far bigger than me winning 100 races.”
There’s arguably no greater ambassador for a sport than its most successful competitor, and that’s a fact that Mikaela seems all too aware of. By utilising her milestones as a focus point, she’s intent on bringing about a change to an industry that’s traditionally battled with accessibility.
Snowsports are notoriously hard for young people to reach, with geography, socioeconomics, and a lack of representation serving as major barriers to entry. It’s why the Share Winter Foundation works closely with carefully selected grantees to build efficient, effective, sustainable winter sports programs and pathways to ongoing winter sports participation. Through its partnerships, the organisation is building a broader, more diverse community, and has a goal of sharing winter with 100,000 kids by 2028.
“The willingness to take this moment and transform it into a movement, to share this win in an effort to create opportunity, that’s what makes Mikaela Shiffrin the greatest of all time,” says Constance Beverley, CEO of Share Winter Foundation. “It’s not the win that makes her the best; it’s her understanding of what the win could mean—a chance to reset what’s possible for everyone in our sport.”
It’s Mikaela’s unique privilege to become the first alpine skier — man or woman — to have achieved 100 wins at this level. To put her achievement into perspective, she’s won as many races as the combined victories of five former World Championship winners, including Hermann Maier (54), Benjamin Raich (36), Michaela Kirchgasser (3), Daniel Albrecht (4) and Eva-Maria Brem (3). It’s a fact that stands Mikaela apart as arguably the biggest star in competitive ski racing today, with few skiers even remotely close to her record.
In her near 14-year career, Mikaela has already pushed the sport of ski racing and the idea of what's possible to its limits, and her legacy is now set. But there’s no sign of her stopping just yet.
There’s a huge array of experience that leads to a moment like this. Pain, elation, disappointment, and sheer joy. Her resilience, especially evident after her crash in Killington, where she sustained one of the most complicated injuries of her career on the way to hitting 100 yet returned with unwavering determination, continues to inspire. Atomic is proud to have accompanied Mikaela through it all on her journey to 100, and prouder still to have provided the skis to help her achieve greatness. We can’t wait to watch her continuing impact, both on the competition circuit and in her new role as ambassador for the Share Winter Foundation. Congratulations, Mikaela!
