Mikaela Shiffrin's Sticky Notes Strategy Wins Olympic Gold

When Mikaela Shiffrin arrived in Cortina d'Ampezzo for the 2026 Winter Olympics, she brought something new: a pack of sticky notes and a plan to rewrite her relationship with pressure.

The alpine skiing legend taped daily mantras to her bathroom mirror. "You have the ability. Go and EARN what you want," read one. "I am loved, and this is going to be a great day. It's going to be so FUN to try!" declared another.

It worked. Shiffrin won gold in slalom, setting a record for the longest gap between individual gold medals in the same event. But the sticky notes were just the visible part of a much deeper mental transformation.

The 29-year-old had spent her summer working intensively with her psychologist, both alone and with her team. She cleared her schedule of everything nonessential to conserve energy. But when she arrived in Italy, all that free time left her alone with her thoughts.

"I don't like this. I do not like this," she told her support team. She worried about public criticism, convinced something would go wrong no matter what she did.

Those fears weren't baseless. After her disappointing 2022 Beijing Olympics, Shiffrin faced death threats on social media. Commenters told her not to bother coming home, that she'd failed her country.

Her coach asked if any of those critics were people she actually cared about. "I'm like, 'No,' but that's easy to say," Shiffrin explains. "If you were stuck in a room of a thousand people who were shouting slurs at you, are you telling me that you can actually block out all of that noise?"

Instead of pretending the voices didn't exist, Shiffrin developed a new approach. She stayed mostly off social media except for Instagram, where she carefully curated her Explore page to show only DIY projects, home organization hacks, and closet cleaning tips. She'd close her eyes, tap the button, and find instant peace.

Why This Inspires

Shiffrin's story challenges the idea that elite athletes must shut out doubt and criticism entirely. She calls her ability to care what others think a "superpower" because it pushes her to dig deeper and find her own voice above the noise.

Her advice for young athletes: doubt is okay, even useful. The key is hearing your own voice louder than outside opinions.

The sticky notes became her daily practice of speaking truth out loud, not just thinking it. Some mantras came from her 15-year career. Others, like "BIG ENERGY," were fresh fuel for this season.

By race day, Shiffrin had filled her mirror with reminders of who she was and what she wanted to bring to the start gate. She wasn't focused on winning a medal but on showing up as her best self.

Standing on the podium at 29, Shiffrin proved that mental preparation matters as much as physical training, and that turning inward can be the ultimate competitive advantage.