27-year-old Shiffrin has on several occasions talked about the great grief she bears after her father died suddenly in February 2020.
Now she tells in a personal chronicle about how grief affects her on a personal level - and about how it is not necessarily behind the sometimes tough season that has recently passed.
Shiffrin describes the grief as undulating, intense and much more multifaceted than she imagined.
She writes about the anger she experienced and about how unfair it feels to be able to continue living her life when her father has not been able to do so.
"Have perfect moments"
Shiffrin writes that she "honestly" does not know what happened during the Olympics, where she repeatedly drove out and then had to go home without a medal.
"There are days when I have perfect moments.
Perfect turns, technology.
I forget the pain.
I remember my dad from afar, and when I get up the hill it feels like it's the only place where I can actually breathe, ”she writes.
She continues:
“Other days it just sucks.
Some days it's so hard to take one step at a time.
Such is grief.
That's how it is to be human ”.
Won the World Cup - got questions about the moon
In terms of performance, Shiffrin returned to the final World Cup competitions and won the overall Alpine World Cup.
The outside world assumed that it was because she was feeling better, but Shiffrin is not at all sure.
"We equate victories with being okay, and the failure to not feel okay."
"The naked truth is that I'm neither okay, nor okay.
It really depends on what day it is and it has almost nothing to do with how fast I get down the hill ”.
CLIP: Mikaela Shiffrin won Courchevel's downhill race
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Mikaela Shiffrin, here with her boyfriend Aleksander Åmodt Kilde, won today's downhill race in Courchevel.
Photo: Alessandra Trovati / AP / TT