From ‘Killer Hill’ to Olympic Gold: Mikaela Shiffrin’s Berkshire Roots

When Mikaela Shiffrin stood atop the podium Wednesday at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, her gold medal in the women's slalom carried a little Berkshire County magic with it, because her roots run right through Lanesborough.

Marjo is all about watching the Olympics in studio this week during the morning show - and to be honest, she had me all jacked up to watch Shiffrin on Wednesday morning. We both knew Mikaela had ties to Lanesborough, but we weren't crystal on the details.

Shiffrin's mother, Eileen Condron Shiffrin, grew up right here, learning to ski on a snowy field off Prospect Street known to locals as "Killer Hill." She went on to join the alpine ski team at Mount Greylock Regional High School, graduating in 1977. Her family, the late Pauline "Polly" and Joe Condron, were fixtures in the local skiing community, volunteering at the Mount Greylock Ski Club and even helping clear brush and trees on the legendary Thunderbolt Trail. After marrying Jeff Shiffrin, Eileen skied at Brodie Mountain while pregnant with Mikaela. The slopes of Western Massachusetts were literally in Mikaela's DNA before she was born. -lanesborough-ma.gov

That background makes today's triumph even sweeter for local fans. Shiffrin, 30, dominated the slalom course at Tofane, finishing with a combined time of 1:39.10, a full 1.5 seconds ahead of silver medalist Camille Rast of Switzerland and bronze medalist Anna Swenn-Larsson of Sweden.

The win makes Shiffrin the only American alpine skier in history to claim three Olympic gold medals, breaking a record she previously shared with Ted Ligety and Andrea Mead Lawrence. -nbcolympics.com

It ended an eight-year Olympic medal drought CNN and was deeply personal, an emotional Shiffrin dedicated the moment in part to her late father Jeff, who passed away unexpectedly in 2020. NBC Olympics

"This feels like a really big moment," Shiffrin said after the race.
It certainly does — especially here in the Berkshires, where her story began.