AVON, Colo. — Drive through the mountain town of Avon, and you’ll see a street called Mikaela Way. Stop in the Westin Riverrun Resort, and there’s a gym with her name on it.
This is Mikaela Shiffrin’s town – an area that includes Edwards, where she's back home to recharge and focus after a tough season.
“You finally get to sleep in your own bed,” she said. “It’s comfortable, and our house is a sanctuary.”
A sanctuary is what Shiffrin needs these days after a difficult ski season that had one of the greatest ski racers of all time enter six events at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and come away without a single medal.
RELATED: 'You can rise tomorrow and keep going': Shiffrin shares story of resilience at Beijing Olympics
“It was an event that was hard to explain,” she said. “There was a lot in Beijing that was beyond anything we have experienced in any race or any Olympics so far.”
Cyberbullies wrote that she was overrated and should leave the sport. In those moments, even she doubted her own abilities, but that didn't last long.
“It’s not about moving on or past anything," she said. "It’s just continuing. Putting one foot in front of the other.”
When Shiffrin returned to Europe and started racing in World Cup events, her racing and speed came back. She earned her fourth overall World Cup title, becoming only the third ski racer in history to do that.
“Getting podiums again, winning races again to the end of the season, it was a reminder that I didn’t completely lose the ability to ski fast in the span of three weeks in Beijing,” she said.
It was a return to form and an amazing comeback that Shiffrin said was in part, thanks to the kindness of those around her and people who wrote her to show support.
“You see the selfless side of humans, and I have been experiencing that a lot lately,” Shiffrin said. “Certainly, there are the trolls and cyberbullies and that exists, but there has been a lot more kindness and support than those bullies.”
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