After Mikaela Shiffrin’s rough time in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a lunch with tennis great Roger Federer helped her regain confidence.
Key Details
- Mikaela Shiffrin had a rough time at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, in which she failed to win a medal, causing her to lose confidence.
- Roger Federer, the all-time Wimbledon men’s singles title winner and skiing fan, invited her and her mother for lunch to discuss her career and give encouragement.
- Federer advised her on how to enjoy a long career and take in every moment, which Shiffrin said spoke to her in a low time.
- “For the first time since the Olympics, I kind of got rid of that yucky feeling that I had there,” she says.
Why it’s important
Even the world’s greatest athletes lose confidence, and that’s exactly what happened to Mikaela Shiffrin after the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Shiffrin is an American two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup alpine skier. She has more World Cup wins than any other female alpine skier in history, but the 2022 Beijing Olympics were the most challenging two weeks of her career.
It was highly possible that she would leave the games with gold medals, but she failed to finish in three of the six events she was in, crashing out after only five gates in both the giant slalom and slalom, leaving her going home without a medal.
Roger Federer, the all-time Wimbledon men’s singles title winner and skiing fan, invited Shiffrin and her mom to lunch which turned out to be just what she needed.
Federer is a 20-time major champion who knows how to create a lasting career and enjoy the long years and tired days that come along with that, and thought that Shiffrin could use some positivity. Shiffrin says the lunch helped her come back after a low point in her life and go on to win the overall title that season.
“I feel like that lunch happened at a time when I really needed a reason to be positive and excited,” Shiffrin says.
Federer discussed Shiffrin’s career with her and her approach to the sport. He gave her three winning bits of advice:
- Appreciate where you are
- Don’t let mishaps define you
- Enjoy the incredible moments of the sport.
“He was saying, In order to preserve the longevity of your career, you need to take the moments to look around, appreciate where you are, breathe it in,” Shiffrin says. “As he got more into the depths of his career, when it gets harder to kind of look up and around you and appreciate everything right in that moment, is when it’s the most important to do it.”
Shiffrin says that Federer told her to look past the mishaps that happened at the Olympic games and look at her career as a whole. He reminded her it was necessary not to let that one bad time define the rest of her life and career and to enjoy the incredible moments because what she does is incredible.
Shiffrin recalled leaving Federer’s house feeling good and not feeling down about the Olympics for the first time since it happened.
