Alpine skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin has decided to take a few responsibilities off her plate heading into the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympic Games. When she competed at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Shiffrin took on six events but failed to finish three races or make the podium. This time around, she'll only compete in three events in her quest for her third Olympic gold medal.

US head coach Paul Kristofic told the Associated Press on Thursday that Shiffrin would just focus on the slalom, giant slalom, and team combined events, which have been her strongest areas throughout her career.

“That [decision] was made quite a while ago, to focus on slalom and GS,” Kristofic said.

“You can get spread very thin when you're chasing after multiple disciplines between speed and tech. So often, your preparation gets compromised because you need to prioritize one or the other. So ultimately you run out of time to really prepare yourself to 100% be on point in your key disciplines,” Kristofic said. “So I think that narrowed focus has helped her stay on point with what she's trying to get done. And that was certainly the plan coming into these Olympics.”

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Shiffrin has won 71 of her record-setting 108 World Cup victories in the slalom event, and she's added 22 wins in giant slalom. The last time Shiffrin competed at Cortina in January 2024, she had a scary crash in the downhill event, which resulted in injuries.

The four-time Olympian was also injured after crashing during the giant slalom event in Killington, Vermont, last season, suffering a deep puncture wound in her abdomen. Shiffrin had to recover physically and mentally after the incident, only just returning to her winning form at the World Cup in Semmering, Austria, late last year.