Jeff Shiffrin, Father Of Colorado Skier Mikaela Shiffrin, Dies

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By John Meyer | [email protected] | The Denver PostPUBLISHED: February 3, 2020 at 10:08 AM MST | UPDATED: February 7, 2020 at 5:16 PM MSTGetting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Less than four months after her beloved maternal grandmother died at age 98, Mikaela Shiffrin is grieving the sudden death of her father, Jeff.

Mikaela Shiffrin tweeted the news Monday morning while requesting privacy and did not reveal details about his death. Ski Racing Magazine reported that he died after an accident at his home in Edwards on Sunday.

“My family is heartbroken beyond comprehension about the unexpected passing of my kindhearted, loving, caring, patient, wonderful father. Our mountains, our ocean, our sunrise, our heart, our soul, our everything. He taught us so many valuable lessons,” Shiffrin tweeted. “But above everything else, he taught us the golden rule: Be nice, think first. This is something I will carry with me forever. He was the firm foundation of our family and we miss him terribly.”

My family is heartbroken beyond comprehension about the unexpected passing of my kindhearted, loving, caring, patient, wonderful father. Our mountains, our ocean, our sunrise, our heart, our soul, our everything. He taught us so many valuable lessons… pic.twitter.com/sqJB5SlOrn

— Mikaela Shiffrin (@MikaelaShiffrin) February 3, 2020

Jeff Shiffrin was an anesthesiologist with Vail Health and Anesthesia Partners of Colorado, and previously he was an associate professor of anesthesiology at the University of Colorado. He usually remained in Colorado while Mikaela and her mother, Eileen, traveled the international ski racing circuit. When he did travel to races, he usually tried to “stay out of their way,” occupying himself during the race by taking photographs. RELATED: Obituary: Jeff Shiffrin, father of Mikaela Shiffrin, remembered as a guiding light and “believer in the process”

“I have to have a job on race day,” Jeff said in December of 2013 after Mikaela earned her first World Cup giant slalom podium at Beaver Creek. “Even though it’s a self-assigned job — nobody really cares if I take pictures — but I have to do that so I’m focused on something. Otherwise it would all be a total blur. … I let Eileen and Mikaela do their routine. It’s about them. In a lot of this, I’m just as much a spectator as anybody else. And that’s the way it should be.”

He often tried to play down his emotions after major achievements by his daughter, but there was no doubt how proud he was of her, such as in Russia six years ago this month when she took gold at the 2014 Sochi Olympics to become the youngest Olympic slalom champion at age 18.

“Thrilled, just another magical moment,” Jeff said that night in Russia, “those things that take your breath away.”

Related Articles

• Mikaela Shiffrin wins last World Cup slalom before Olympics and locks up record ninth season discipline title
• Mikaela Shiffrin and US teammate Paula Moltzan finish 1-2 in Flachau night slalom
• Swiss skier Camille Rast ends Mikaela Shiffrin’s six-race winning streak in World Cup slaloms with Olympics looming
• Mikaela Shiffrin keeps streak going with come-from-behind win in World Cup night slalom
• Mikaela Shiffrin is perfect in slalom. She’s got big post-Christmas plans with Olympics approaching.

Mikaela Shiffrin has 66 World Cup wins, fourth on the all-time list, and her next win will tie her for third with Austria’s Marcel Hirscher. Shiffrin has won the last three World Cup overall titles and is leading in the standings this year. If she wins this year, she will become the second American to win four, along with Lindsey Vonn.

Jeff liked to call himself the “systems analyst” in Mikaela’s ski racing development and Eileen the “application specialist.” He studied the physics of skiing and the science of success while mom traveled with Mikaela throughout the season, serving as one of Mikaela’s coaches.

He always said the pursuit of mastery in ski racing or anything else was a matter of focusing step-by-step on process.

“It’s about the process. It’s about improvement. It’s not about winning,” Jeff said that night in Sochi. “When you win, enjoy it, be excited about it. Nothing changes. It doesn’t mean you don’t get excited as hell when it happens. It just makes it all the more meaningful that, yep, it’s about the process. It’s about sticking with, ‘I have to be better tomorrow than today, if at all possible.’ The training is the work, the racing is just icing on the cake.”

Tiger Shaw, chief executive of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association, issued a statement on behalf of the organization.

“I am without words today as we mourn the loss of Jeff Shiffrin,” Shaw said. “Jeff was a good friend and we will all miss him terribly. Our — and the entire ski world’s — thoughts and prayers go out to his family during this incredibly difficult time.”

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