- Mikaela Shiffrin reflected on her career and becoming a future aunt on Thursday after claiming Olympic gold in the women's slalom event.
- Shiffrin is now preparing for the World Cup and focusing on super-G training.
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Utah is not the only place getting pummeled by snow. Here in northern Italy's Dolomite mountains, a local described recent snow as the second-worst storm he'd seen this winter.
Matt Gephardt is actually staying in a town called San Vito, it's about 20 minutes by bus to Cortina, usually. On Thursday, it was more like two or three hours.
The weather was so bonkers in Cortina on Thursday that even curling — yes, the indoor sport of curling — had to be delayed.
So he's not complaining about his indoor assignment: interviewing Mikaela Shiffrin, the winningest Alpine skier in history, less than 24 hours after she, for the third time, struck gold.
She got her first gold at just 18 years old, and when you add in her other accomplishments, she is history-setting as the most decorated Alpine skier ever.
"This one is really special," Shiffrin said while holding her new bling.
"It's, I don't know. I'm 30 now. The first one, I didn't even know what was going on, what I was getting into. This time I'm going into it with my eyes pretty wide open," she said.
She said she's excited about this — but more so about the fact she's about to be an aunt.
"I might be a little bit overbearing. Might be one of those things where my brother and sister-in-law are like, 'You need to back off, you need to give him back. This is our baby,'" she said, laughing.
Just one day after blowing away the competition for a gold medal in the slalom, Shiffrin is already focusing on the next race.
"Get right on to my super-G skis, actually, next week — which feels like a year away — but try to get some super-G training so I can hopefully race the remainder (of the) World Cup of this season," she said.
There is an Olympic pin that celebrates Shiffrin — Team USA GOAT, an acronym for greatest of all time. If you just count Olympic gold medals, it's a moniker that is true.
