BIOGRAPHY:
Burke Mountain Academy student Mikaela Shiffrin began turning heads almost instantly when she finished top 15 of her first two NorAm Cup races. But the heads started spinning when she won a super combined in British Colombia two weeks later and transferred that momentum into a NorAm title and two World Cup starts as a first year J3.

The super combined win steamrolled into a giant slalom victory and two slalom wins on the NorAm tour - good enough for the slalom title and third place finishes in the season long overall, giant slalom and super combined standings. P.S. - she also had a NorAm podium on super G too and locked a slalom bronze medal at the Junior World Championships while racing with a cold.

U.S. Ski Team World Cup coaches got a glimpse of her skiing at the Aspen Winternational, where she was a forerunner for the annual Thanksgiving weekend World Cup. And when the results backed up what they saw in Aspen, Shiffrin got the call to join Olympians Lindsey Vonn, Julia Mancuso, Sarah Schleper and Resi Stiegler at the Spindleruv Mlyn World Cup stop in the Czech Republic. She was a mere .05 seconds from a second run of slalom, but the experience was well worth the trans-Atlantic trip.

Mancuso and Co. were definitely impressed, but even more-so when Shiffrin snatched the slalom title at the Putnam Investments U.S. Alpine Championships to close the season. When asked how she was going to celebrate, she said with a little algebra homework.

Needless to say, Shiffrin was appropriately named the 2011 Ski Racing Magazine Junior of the Year (formerly won by both Vonn and Mancuso) and also received the Eastern Ski Writers Association Golden Ski Award for the top junior in the East.

MIKAELA SAYS:
I guess anything is possible. Sarah (Schleper) and Resi (Stiegler) have been so supportive of me; beating them is a crazy feeling, but the better part about it was that they were still supportive of it. This is the best end to a season ever. I know this is where I want to be. I know it's going to take a lot of work, but this is so cool.'

Some of my friends tell me, 'I met Julia!' Or, 'I met Lindsey!' I'd always been jealous, like, 'I want my chance to meet them.' But having a chance to ski with them, and race against them, was so beyond what I could have imagined. I'm trying not to have too many expectations, at least not really high expectations. As someone who's very competitive, I'm always going to have some sort of expectation in the back of my mind. To be honest, I've always wanted to win, and I always will want to win.

FIRST TRACKS:
Shiffrin was getting freshies down the family driveway at age three and quickly graduated into running gates at Vail. "The funny thing is, I hated freeskiing and would only go up if I could run gates. Pretty much, I'd never go above chair six." The extra laps paid off in a hurry and a couple of NorAm wins and a Junior Worlds medal prompted U.S. coaches to make a phone call. While walking to her dorm at Burke she noticed several missed calls from her coach and her father, plus "20 jillion texts." A few weeks later she was in the start gate at her first World Cup.

OFF THE SNOW:
Shiffrin has no problem picking up a racquet and batting around a little green ball. "I love playing tennis and soccer, but skiing is definitely number one." Dad raced for Dartmouth and Mom is a Masters racer – big bro Taylor is gunning for the men's Development Team. Reading is also a distraction of choice, but she says it's tough to find time for anything other than text books. When it comes to movies, it's all about chick flicks and romantic comedies. "Don't even try to get me to watch a horror movie."