Mikaela Shiffrin said she chose a lyric from Taylor Swift’s song Ruin the Friendship to mark her gold medal victory at the 2026 Winter Olympics because the track captures her mindset about risk and commitment at the start gate.
Shiffrin won the women’s slalom on February 18 at the Winter Games in Italy. After her victory, she shared a line from Swift’s song on Instagram: “My advice is always ruin the friendship.” The lyric comes from the track Ruin the Friendship, which explores themes of loss and regret over a high school friendship that remained platonic instead of becoming something more.
Although Shiffrin is engaged to Norwegian alpine skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, she said the song resonated with her competitive approach rather than her personal life.
“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,’” she explained.
Shiffrin, a member of Team Visa’s athlete program who also appeared in an advertisement highlighting her road to the Games, said she interpreted the song as a call to bold action. “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.”
She added that she carefully selected the accompanying image for the post, calling it “probably the best photo I’ve ever had of a slalom turn. (It’s) the best action shot. And it just felt like this was the mentality that spoke to that photo, so yeah. It felt right,” she said, before adding of Swift: “And I got a comment (from) the author herself. Just crazy.”
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Swift responded directly to the post, commenting, “HISTORIC 🥇🥇🥇.” Shiffrin’s slalom win added another Olympic gold medal to her career and further solidified her record as the most decorated skier in Alpine World Cup history.
Taylor Swift Reacts To Mikaela Shiffrin As Breezy Johnson Shares Her Own Swiftie Moment
Taylor Swift’s public support extended beyond Mikaela Shiffrin. The singer has previously engaged with members of the U.S. ski team online.
For the unversed, Shiffrin attended Swift’s Eras Tour show in Denver in 2023 and told The New York Times in 2024 that Swift’s music “has been guiding me a little bit every step of the way.”
Teammate Breezy Johnson also experienced a Swift-related moment during the Games. When Johnson’s now-fiancé, Connor Watkins, proposed at the finish line of the Super-G race, he incorporated a lyric from Swift’s song The Alchemy.
Swift later referenced the same line in an Instagram comment. “One of my favorite other lyrics from the song is, ‘Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me,’ “ Johnson told PEOPLE earlier this week, adding, “It was cool,” for Swift to pick those exact ones for her comment.
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Shiffrin’s February 18 victory in Italy marked a key milestone at the 2026 Winter Games, where she secured gold in the women’s slalom and added to her Olympic achievements while drawing public acknowledgment from one of her longtime musical influences.
