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Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in the women's slalom race, and to celebrate the special occasion, she borrowed Taylor Swift's iconic lyrics, and in the latest interview, she has explained why.
Following her gold medal win, the American alpine skier posted a snap of herself in snow on February 18, with the caption, "My advice is always ruin the friendship", a line from Swift's track Ruin the Friendship.
While the song is about the singer's regret over a high school friendship, which did not turn into something more, Shiffrin has given it her own meaning.
She explained to PEOPLE, "The lyrics go into some loss and regret and things like that, but at the end of the day, when I started out this season listening to the album, I kept putting on 'Ruin the Friendship', 'cause I'm like, 'This is what I want to feel what I'm in the start gate. I want to go. I just want to leave it all behind and ruin the friendship'."
The post did not miss the popstar's sharp eyes, who left a comment under the post, reading, "HISTORIC".
Shiffrin, who won the gold medal at the Milano Cortina 2026 after eight races, said that to her, the song is all about putting ones' self out there, which is what she does at every race.
"It's about taking risks, kind of, in my life. That's how I sort of translate it to my life, and that's not always the easiest thing to do," she said. "But yeah, it really felt like the right moment."
Mikaela Shiffrin is a long-time Swiftie, and attended the Grammy-winning singer's Eras Tour show in Denver in 2023, and in 2024, she told The New York Times that Taylor Swift's music "has been guiding me a little bit every step of the way".
