Mikaela Shiffrin Talks Competing at 2030 Olympics & "Lazy" Gold Medal Redemption Narrative

And sometimes it feels a little bit funky to wear it.

I don't, you're like, Hi.

Here I am wearing this thing, you know, I don't know.

Where do you rank this gold medal amongst your previous gold medal winners?

It depends what we're talking about.

If we're talking about life growth and things that were a catalyst for me to be, you know, be a better version of myself, I think Beijing was probably one of the most important time periods of my life, you know, now I can walk away from this Olympics and to have a gold medal, to have another gold medal and.

After all of this time that the world, the storyline out there is that I got my revenge, I came back, I, there was a metal drought and I, it's just, it's too simple for what has really happened in the last 8 years, the last 12 years.

You had this long gap between your 1st and 2nd run as the leader.

What was running through?

What do you do?

What do we do?

So I really love training like I, because on a training day you get to get, you get run after run and you get to practice.

Like you're really.

Um, like perfecting your craft and on race day, I have like a challenging relationship with races because there's so much waiting, and I find waiting for those runs to be painful.

I guess it's uncomfortable for everybody, but it's really, it feels, sometimes it feels like just a waste of time.

And I found it really challenging to manage my energy and to like manage the focus and I had about 30 minutes where I laid on the ground of the like hospitality, and my mind was kind of racing, but after some time, I had my music in and I was just like, I don't know, imagining different things and at some point during this 30 minutes, a little bit stopped thinking about the race, um, I started to actually think.

About my family and support and my dad, and just to sort of think about the people I care about so much, not all of them can be here and like to send a note to them in my mind, like, thank you for everything you've done.

This was all before the 2nd run.

So I was in this mindset of like, showing gratitude, which was really special.

It was also very emotional.

And then I was like, you shouldn't be crying right now, the race isn't over, you know.

That's what the waiting does.

Waiting is tough .

You, you got it done.

Condolences on your father.

What would that conversation between the two of you be like right now?

Uh, I wish I could tell you, um, he really did not put a lot of emphasis on these kind of things, but he put a lot of emphasis on like moments, like inspiring moments.

He's a guy who, he'd cry in the moment of a triumph, but he maybe wouldn't even want to touch the metal.

Um, and that's, you know, it's almost similar to my mom, they have this, this philosophy, and they brought me up with a philosophy that.

Like the joyful moments of life are in the moments when you're doing the thing, and not what comes once you've done it.

Yeah, I mean, we get to enjoy both.

I got to, I got to do it and I got to, you know, we get to enjoy the medal as well, but um I think he would probably make some funny little awkward joke about throwing the medal away or something.

I don't know.

When it's all said and done, what are you going to do with these medals?

Are you going to make a shrine, put them on the lock and key, what are you gonna do with them?

You know, there's a few Olympians racing are competing in these games that have really like a lot of medals, you know, some, some of the luge athletes and some of the gosh, country athletes, they have like special fitted cases.

Holders.

I just, honestly, I just put them in a safe and forget about them a little bit.

But um, I don't know, maybe it would be fun to like, you know what I'm picturing display that I'm picturing you walking down the aisle with all the metals.

No, stop.

It's not.

That's ridiculous.

Oh my gosh.

Maybe like a belt wheels spinning.

I know you said it first, so the the idea that this your IP, that's for sure.

OK.

So last question, it's probably way too early to ask, but 2030, what's up?

You coming back?

Four years feels like.

A lifetime, so it feels so far away, but also I know, I know how fast that time can go.

So I won't say no, but I'm not going to say yes either.