“Trying to prove my worth” – Mikaela Shiffrin opens up about overcoming performance anxiety after losing 2022 Olympics

After experiencing an epic fall at the 2022 Olympic games, the Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin used her own experience to shade light on some much-needed mental health issues. She had to spin around a lot of twists and turns in the past two years, which included her father’s death, a debilitating back injury, and a COVID positive test. If that wasn’t enough, the skier had to go through disqualification at the 2022 Olympic games three times. 

After stumbling near the slalom she veered to the sidelines looked at the cameras, bowed down, and said, “Everybody experiences the hard days when it’s difficult to keep a positive attitude, and you just kind of need to sit down and cry,”. “Except, for me, it all became a very public thing.” Normally she bolts out of such situations showing her strong demeanor to everyone, but this time she knew that in order to move forward she needed to look back. She said, “It’s scary because it shows vulnerability. But there’s no reason to feel shame anymore.”

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Mikaela Shiffrin comments on her mental health issues

Mikaela Shiffrin shed light on sensitive subjects like mental health, trauma, and performance pressure. It is noted on elle.com, that she is already one of the most decorated skiers of all time, and despite some setbacks, she will be ready to bounce back soon. Her mother Eileen commented, “She wasn’t one of those athletes who needed to be pushed; she just ran with it, and people just couldn’t catch up with her.” Later Shiffrin suffered from COVID positive and had to stay away from slopes for a long time.

Recalling her father Jeff’s death and how he would stand at the end of the line with a camera in his hands and cheering for her, “He was our rock, our safety net.” Around 2016 she came face to face with her issues with performance anxiety “No matter how much success I’ve had in my career, it was like a constant battle of trying to prove my worth”. “I would be nervous, and then I’d get more and more and more nervous until I had to puke”. “I was essentially having panic attacks,” Sheffrin noted.

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Sheffrin’s dad’s death dealt a heavy blow on her, “When your priorities get set so much straighter from an accident or a tragedy like that, you start to wonder, ‘Why was racing ever important to me to begin with?’” She was disqualified from the games and after crashing at the Olympics she said, “I knew I needed to face this, and I could either choose to do it in shame or I could choose to stand up straight and, I don’t know, bare my soul.” She further added, “Sometimes, the simple act of trying is all you can do”.

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