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NEED TO KNOW
- Mikaela Shiffrin got a special shoutout from Taylor Swift after winning a gold medal in slalom at the 2026 Winter Olympics
- The professional skier quoted the 14x Grammy winner in an Instagram post, and used her song as backing
- Shiffrin the most decorated skier in Olympic history and the first U.S. skier to win three Olympic golds
Mikaela Shiffrin is making the whole place shimmer!
The professional skier, 30, dazzled the country with a history-making win gold medal win in slalom at the 2026 Winter Olympics, and even caught the attention of Taylor Swift with an Instagram post in celebration of the milestone.
"HISTORIC 🥇🥇🥇," penned the 14x Grammy winner, 35, in the comment section of Shiffrin's upload, which included a caption with song lyrics penned by Swift and musical backing by the artist.
Mikaela Shiffrin/Instagram
The song the most decorated skier in Olympic history chose was "Ruin the Friendship," the hit off Swift's latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, which released on Oct. 3, 2025. The song is number six on the 12-track project.
"My advice is always ruin the friendship," Shiffrin captioned the post alongside a photo of herself competing in slalom at the Winter Games shared on Thursday, Feb. 19.
Shiffrin is a known fan of the "Fate of Ophelia" singer. In July 2023, she attended Swift's record-breaking Eras Tour at the Denver show, where she and her U.S. Ski teammates rented out a suite and "sang on the top of [their] lungs" to her songs.
In January 2024, Shiffrin said that she uses Swift as a guide to navigate fame, unprecedented success and adversity.
"I’ve spent 15 years studying Taylor Swift and she has been guiding me a little bit every step of the way,” she said in a recent interview in Vermont, per the New York Times, where she claimed the 90th of her 93 career World Cup victories.
Daniel Kopatsch/VOIGT/Getty
"It’s why most Swifties become Swifties," she said at the time. "It feels like her music is speaking directly to you. Her experiences resonate; I’ve always tried to learn from them."
On Wednesday, Feb. 18, Shiffrin reached a new summit in her sport at the 2026 Winter Games, becoming the most decorated skier in Olympic history and the first U.S. skier to win three Olympic gold medals.
Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty
Shiffrin’s gold medal marked her first visit to the Olympic podium in eight years after a disappointing turn in Beijing.
Her combined finish time of 1:39.10 put her 1.50 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher Camille Rast, the largest margin in any Olympic alpine skiing event since 1998.
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The win marked her second slalom gold medal, the first of which she secured in Sochi in 2014. Upon finishing, she briefly put her head down, full of emotion, before getting up and pumping her fist with joy.
"I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash. It's not easy to do that, but I've been so focused every single day," she told reporters after her win. "In the end, today, showing up - that was the thing I wanted most. More than the medal. Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable."
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