Daily Routines by Balance the Grind

Daily Routines by Balance the Grind

Mikaela Shiffrin: Daily Routine

For Mikaela Shiffrin, breakfast powers the mountain, naps are non-negotiable, and recovery is just as important as the grind.

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Hao (BTG)
Jun 05, 2025
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When the 2022 Winter Olympic Games were approaching, all eyes were on Mikaela Shiffrin. At 26-years old, the American two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup alpine skier was already seen as one of the greatest skiers of all time with her growing list of incredible achievements, including:

  • 4-time Overall World Cup champion

  • 4-time world champion in Slalom

  • youngest slalom champion in Olympic alpine skiing history

  • most Olympic gold medals ever won by an American Olympian in alpine skiing (tied with Ted Ligety and Andrea Mead Lawrence)

But the circumstances around the American skier as she headed into her third Olympics were less than ideal. At the beginning of 2020, her father, Jeff Shiffrin, who had played a vital role in her skiing career her entire life, tragically passed away from a severe head injury at the age of 65.

Then, in the lead-up to the games, Shiffrin suffered from a severe back strain that made moving, let alone training, almost impossible. To make matters worse, she tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to isolate for 10 days in a hotel room. “I was hoping that maybe I could just come back and it’d be fine,” she admitted in an interview with Elle. “But at that point, I was really low.”

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