How Taylor helped Mikaela
Skier looked to pop star to cope with fame, father’s death
Folks who have followed Mikaela Shiffrin’s career know she’s one of the most decorated skiers in the sport’s history and a trailblazer for women on the slopes, having notched her 93rd career win in December.
But did you know that Shiffrin is also a Swiftie?
In a recent profile in The New York Times, the Colorado-raised alpine racer details how she looks to Taylor Swift for guidance on her professional journey as a record- setting female and during times of personal strife. And because the two are so close in age — Shiffrin is 28 and Swift just turned 34 — their trajectories to stardom often mirrored one another.
“I’ve spent 15 years studying Taylor Swift and she has been guiding me a little bit every step of the way,” Shiffrin told the Times. “It’s why most Swifties become Swifties. It feels like her music is speaking directly to you. Her experiences resonate; I’ve always tried to learn from them.”
Here are four fun facts we learned about Shiffrin and her Swiftiedom from the NYT interview.
Shiffrin attended the Eras Tour in Denver last summer
Swift hit Denver’s Mile High Stadium for two nights last July and welcomed 70,000 fans per performance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Shiffrin was in a suite among those fans enjoying “three hours of jumping up and down while singing every song at the top of my lungs,” the skier told the Times.
The song “Epiphany” helped Shiffrin process her father’s death
In February 2020, Jeff Shiffrin, Mikaela’s father, died unexpectedly after suffering a head injury. The family has declined to elaborate on what happened — the coroner said the cause of death was an accident — but the incident prompted the skier to take an extended hiatus.
In July 2020, Swif t released her eighth studio album
entitled “Folklore.” It includes a song cal led “Epiphany” that alludes to loss and grief experienced on the front lines of war and in hospitals on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The message resonated with Shiffrin; she played the song on repeat.
“She literally addressed the most unforeseeable and horrific experience I ever have gone through,” Shiffrin said in the Times interview. “It speaks directly to the experiences I had in the hospital with my dad. It was hard to listen to and heart-wrenching but also uplifting at the same time, which is something I really needed at that time.”
Shiffrin tries to embody the singer’s approach to celebrity
Both Shiffrin and Swift entered the global stage as teenagers and the skier admired the singer’s navigation of the public spotlight.
“I took all that in and kind of assimilated it,” Shiffrin said, referring to times Swift shared personal details of her life to the times she purposefully disappeared from the cultural zeitgeist.
And when critics questioned Shiffrin’s abilities, she turned to Swift’s 2017 album “Reputation” for inspiration.
“I related to the album because it made me feel like life is full of ebbs and flows. And that everything is probably going to be OK,” Shiffrin said.
Despite the admiration, Shiffrin has not met her idol
Shiffrin isn’t scared to race downhill at 80 miles per hour, but according to The New York Times, having an opportunity to meet Swift makes her nervous.
“I’d probably trip over myself and be so tonguetied,” Shiffrin said, laughing.
“And then it’d be memorable to her because it’s the first time she’s experienced, like, a goofball.”