Mikaela Shiffrin knows exactly what it feels like when everything clicks.
It’s not a time on the clock or a podium finish, it’s a sensation. “There’s a certain feeling first thing when I wake up,” she says. “I stand up and … my muscles are just ready to do good work that day.”
That feeling of fully rested, physically primed and mentally sharp is what every athlete chases. But it’s surprisingly rare for Shiffrin.
“That’s probably the case 15-20% of the time,” she says. The rest of the time, she’s doing what most elite athletes do: performing anyway.
For much of the World Cup season, Shiffrin says she operates somewhere between energized and exhausted. “You can sort of hover around a middle-to-low tank of energy for most of the season,” she explains. “You rarely get to, like, ‘Oh, I’m fully recharged.’”
It’s not for lack of preparation. In a perfect world, she says every race would be preceded by a carefully calibrated buildup of training, recovery and rest. “But we’re racing every weekend, all season long,” she says. “You’d need at least a two-week buildup into every race to feel that perfect combination.”
Instead, the reality of elite ski racing is a constant cycle of travel, competition, recovery, repeat. The schedule leaves little room for reset. And it’s not just the skiing itself. “It’s basically like moving from one house to another every three days for seven months,” she says. “You’re constantly packing, unpacking, training, doing body work, trying to get enough sleep.” That kind of pace takes a toll, both physically and mentally.
Fueling an Elite Athlete
Within that demanding routine, nutrition becomes less about perfection and more about consistency. Shiffrin’s approach has evolved over time. When she was younger, she didn’t think much about how food affected her body. “I felt like I could eat anything,” she says. Now, she pays more attention to the food that's fueling her body.
“If I go for a period of time where I’m getting really good, well-rounded nutrition, I feel really good,” she says. “But if I’m on more of a junky train, I can feel the negative sides of that.” Those signals show up in ways that go beyond performance. “My skin really starts to break out, or I get more dry, or my hair feels entirely different,” she says.
Over the past several years, that awareness has shifted how she fuels, especially around training and competition. Pre-competition breakfast, in particular, has become a non-negotiable. “Usually I’ll eat two or three eggs and a bowl of oatmeal,” she says.
It’s a meal designed to last, with protein for staying power and carbohydrates for energy. She’s tried toast instead of oats, but she says the fibrous bowl of oatmeal provides more sustained fuel during long training sessions. She usually adds nuts, seeds, honey, or yogurt to the oatmeal bowl or even mixes in an egg for extra protein.
Breakfast is essential for Shiffrin because the rest of the day can be unpredictable. “After races, I really struggle to eat … probably because of stress,” she says. Nerves suppress her appetite, especially on competition days, when the stakes and adrenaline are high. When her appetite returns, she gravitates toward simple, satisfying meals. “A bowl of pasta is filling and easy to eat,” she says.
One thing she’s experimented with and ruled out is cutting carbohydrates. “I’ve tried less carbs,” she says. “It does not work.”
For Shiffrin, the connection between carbs and performance is immediate and unmistakable. “When you’re really using your body, (carbs) fuel your brain, and they fuel your body,” she says. On days when she doesn’t get enough carbs, she feels it quickly. “My brain feels like it’s suffocating,” she says. “When I’m fueled properly, I can actually put better effort into that training.”
Stress and the Mental Load of Competition
Managing stress is another piece of the athlete equation, and one Shiffrin says she’s still figuring out. “I haven’t nailed it,” she says about managing her stress levels. Some of that stress is inherent to the sport. Alpine skiing carries real risk, and it’s something she’s acutely aware of. “You’re standing in the start gate knowing that in the worst crashes, it’s life-threatening,” she says. “And crashes happen a lot.”
But much of the strain comes from everything surrounding the sport, like the logistics, the expectations and the constant travel. Sleep can be a challenge. Winding down at the end of the day isn’t always easy. “It can be hard to shut things off,” she says.
Rather than trying to eliminate stress entirely, she’s been working on understanding it. “A big practice has been trying to figure out what’s actually making me uncomfortable,” she says. “Instead of just saying, ‘I’m so stressed,’ it’s like, ‘Why?’”
Sometimes the answer is surprisingly practical, like the pressure of managing gear, schedules or travel logistics. Other times, it’s less tangible. Either way, she’s learning to listen to her body.
Finding Moments of Recovery
In a schedule without real weekends or extended breaks, recovery is definitely far from easy. Instead of full days off, Shiffrin looks for smaller windows. “I might have little bits of time on a daily basis,” she says.
Sometimes that means a short nap. “These are my 20 minutes, or my 40 minutes, where I can set an alarm, and I have this designated time to shut things down.”
Asked if she ever has any free time to just relax, Shiffrin says: “It’s not like free time, like most people will have the weekend. I might have little bits of time on a daily basis, but I don’t really have a weekend ever." She says she tries to take little moments to chill, versus long chunks of time.
She doesn’t always feel fully energized, eat perfectly or sleep well. And yet, she competes — and wins — at the highest level. Part of that comes down to mindset. “I use my mental energy to kind of infuse good energy into my day,” she says.
In other words, feeling your best isn’t always a prerequisite for performing your best. Sometimes, it’s something you create along the way.
