A personal tragedy. The global pandemic. Then a back injury to top it all off. The surprising number of setbacks that Mikaela Shiffrin had to deal with in 2020 has created a new bond with her coaching team. The American skier says her coaches played a big role in helping her return and regain her focus and that they are “almost like mentors in life.” Shiffrin’s head coach Mike Day says the skier’s time away from the sport after her father died was “like an injury.” He says “she went through something that hurt really badly and the timeline for return is something that is extremely personal.”
