Reporter Liriel Higa deeply moved by Mikaela Shiffrin’s emotional words about her late father after Olympic gold

Mikaela Shiffrin once again stood on top of the Olympic podium in 2026. But this time, it was not only her skiing that people remembered. The words she said about her deceased father impacted many people.

Shiffrin won her third Olympic gold medal in slalom with a huge 1.5-second lead. The win made her the oldest American woman to win an Olympic title. Fans celebrated the record, but the most powerful moment came after the race. During the press conference, Mikaela Shiffrin spoke openly about her father, Jeff Shiffrin, who died in an accident in 2020.Her honest words about grief and learning to live after loss stayed with many people.

One of them was journalist Liriel Higa. In an essay published by The New York Times, Higa explained how Shiffrin’s reflections felt deeply personal to her. Higa later shared a screenshot of the article on Instagram and wrote, “Wrote about @mikaelashiffrin last month, and how she captured how I’ve felt at times when missing my dad.” The message caught Shiffrin’s attention.

The Olympic champion reposted the story and reacted with a simple heart emoji.

The moment quietly connected two people through a shared experience of loss.

Mikaela Shiffrin’s emotional reflection about her father connects deeply with reporter Liriel Higa

In her essay for The New York Times, Liriel Higa explained why Mikaela Shiffrin’s press conference stood out during the Winter Olympics. “Listening to her speak after her win on Wednesday, it was clear that her emotion was not about having silenced her doubters or having lifted any hex, or even just about recapturing the gold. Shiffrin’s father died after an accident in 2020,” Higa wrote.She continued, “The way she spoke about how she has experienced life since then will likely resonate with anyone who mourns a loved one. (My dad died last year, and I was stunned at how precisely she captured this unmooring.)”Higa said Shiffrin’s words described grief in a way that felt very real to her. That shared feeling made the Olympic moment even more powerful. In the same essay, Higa also praised two other athletes for their strength during the Olympics, American figure skaters Ilia Malinin and Maxim Naumov.Malinin entered the Games as a strong medal favorite but fell during his free skate. Even so, he showed great sportsmanship by congratulating the winner afterwards. The moment went viral and later helped him receive the Fair Play Award in a global fan poll.Maxim Naumov’s story was also emotional. The American skater lost both of his parents in a tragic plane crash that shocked the U.S. figure skating community last year.

Despite the heartbreak, the 24-year-old qualified for the Olympics after finishing third at the U.S. national championships. Higa wrote that fans will remember their results, but their strength as people may matter even more.Meanwhile, Mikaela Shiffrin has already turned her focus back to the World Cup season. The 30-year-old is chasing her sixth overall World Cup title. She recently entered a rare super-G race and finished 23rd, earning eight valuable points.Those points helped her stretch her overall lead to 125 points ahead of Emma Aicher with six races left. Lindsey Vonn is also still leading the downhill standings, though Aicher has reduced her lead to just 14 points. With the season heading toward its final stretch, the battle for the World Cup titles is far from over.