Mikaela Shiffrin launches personal brand, podcast to capitalize on upcoming Winter Olympics and beyond

The GIST: Yesterday, legendary Olympic alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin announced her new personal brand and logo as she prepares to win over fans with her persona. And the timing couldn’t be better: The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup and Milano Cortina 2026 are just around the corner.

• Though plenty of elite athletes have used their in-game success to introduce personal brands, Shiffrin’s launch ahead of these major events positions her to profit through the Games and beyond, something that’s been uncommon for winter Olympians. In rare air.

The details: Shiffrin is extending her new brand through a podcast, What’s the Point with Mikaela Shiffrin, which is presented by Stifel and will kick off next Wednesday. In the podcast, Shiffrin will utilize her unique perspective as a dominant elite athlete to chat with pros in sports, business, and other industries.

The context: Shiffrin’s namesake brand is powered by her reputation as an elite athlete: She is the winningest alpine skier in history, and brands associated with her elite excellence include Adidas, Oakley, Stifel, United Airlines, and Visa. Shiffrin has also extended her influence to command ownership in sports, such as her stake in the NWSL’s Denver Summit FC.

The precedent: We’ve seen personal brands from many elite male athletes at the top of their game like Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Lewis Hamilton, but we’ve only seen it from a handful of women athletes. It tends to only be very prominent individual athletes (think tennis stars and Olympians), but A’ja Wilson, Megan Rapinoe, and Sabrina Ionescu all landed logos via Nike.

• However, it’s even rarer for winter sport athletes, though snowboarder Shaun White and skier Lindsey Vonn have leveraged their names as two of the best-known winter athletes. Generally, the winter Olympics have lower viewership and thereby draw fewer advertisers, which may be why White and Vonn worked so hard to become year-long, household names.

Zooming out: In recent games, Olympians have taken matters into their own hands when it comes to promoting themselves, especially on social media. As a women athlete in a niche sport, it’s smart for Shiffrin to remind people who she is and what she’s accomplished ahead of the Games.

• It’s also timely to see Shiffrin capitalizing on the rise of podcasts, especially as a recent report found women are featured in only 22% of athlete-owned sports podcasts. This gives her a perspective that few others have, both as an athlete and podcast host. The 30K view looks good from here.