Mikaela Shiffrin certainly knows how to celebrate a win.
After capturing her first gold medal since 2018 on Wednesday in the women’s slalom, Shiffrin first took to social media.
She posted a photo of herself lying face down on her bed with her gold medal still draped around her neck.
She also penned a heartfelt message on Instagram that encapsulated her eight-year journey back to glory.
“I won. I f–king won. This, right here, is the lottery and I won. Oh, and I got a medal too,” the last two lines read.
On Twitter, Shiffrin simply wrote “I won.”
Later in the night, Shiffrin was spotted at the Austria House in Cortina, sporting a Team USA sweater and a black hat. She was seen clapping and dancing to the music along with a horde of Austrian fans.
Shiffrin, 30, entered the 2026 Olympics after failing to claim a medal in Beijing in 2022.
There, she skied off the course in both the slalom and giant slalom.
In November 2024, she also was injured in a crash at the World Cup.
In her first two events in Milano Cortina — women’s giant slalom and team combined slalom — she came up empty handed again.
But her signature event, the slalom, became her route to victory once again.
2026 WINTER OLYMPICS
Shiffrin finished 1.5 seconds in front of silver medalist Camille Rast, the largest margin of victory in the event since 1998, and the same gap that separated Rast and the 13th-place finisher.
Shiffrin’s now the most decorated U.S. skier ever, with her three golds leading the pack on top of 108 career World Cup wins.
She’s also the youngest and oldest American woman to win alpine gold after her first medal came at 18 in 2014.
“The skiing is what I cared about and of course, medal and [win] gold. That’s a dream come true,” Shiffrin told NBC following the race. “But at some point this week, I just said, ‘Stop dreaming, just ski.’”
Shiffrin’s medal is also her first since her father died in 2020. She’s carried that weight with her ever since, especially after failing to medal in 2022.
Her redemption this year meant that much more.
“It’s like being born again,” Shiffrin said. “And I still have so many moments where I resist this. I don’t want to be in this life without my dad, but maybe today was the first time I could actually accept like, this is reality.”
Shiffrin will leave Milan an Olympic champion once again. And she’s certainly not holding back in her celebration.
