Ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin will be joining an organization “near and dear to her heart” as she just announced her role as an official ambassador for the Share Winter Foundation which works to improve the lives, health, and fitness of youth through winter sports.
This year Share Winter will fund over 45,000 youth in programs across the country with the goal of sharing the winter with 100,000 youth by 2028. They work closely with their carefully selected grantees to build efficient, effective, sustainable winter sports programs and pathways to ongoing winter sports participation.
Mikaela Shiffrin:
As I head into the FIS Alpine World Cup kickoff week in Sölden, I am honored to share today that I am officially joining the Share Winter team as an Ambassador.
Share Winter’s efforts have always been near and dear to my heart, and as I head into the last few seasons of my career, it’s important to me that I amplify and elevate causes that transcend the sport and create more access to this sport that is so near and dear to my heart.
I’ve shared this message before, but it’s still very apt, and worth sharing again…
Looking back on my career to this point—from my very first turns to my 97th World Cup victory—I feel like a million different stars aligned to help me get to where I am. A thousand different people assisted me in my dreams and showed me support at the most crucial times.
I’ve come across hundreds of different moments where the path in front of me diverged (…in a yellow wood…) and I either chose to take or was guided down the “right” path to this point now. It’s actually pretty incredible when I think about it, and even though it has taken a lot of hard work and I like to think that “luck” isn’t part of the equation, I still can’t help but feel incredibly lucky.
I know that not everyone is blessed with the good fortune I have come across, in fact very few are, and over the years the lack of accessibility for a diverse group of people in winter sports has funneled us into a very *not* diverse community. I love this community, but can’t help but wonder how much more potential there is for it to be stronger if we could help Share Winter with everyone, rather than just those of us who have the means, the access, or the background (and bloodlines) to support it.
Share Winter Foundation’s mission is to make winter sports more accessible to those historically denied access to winter sports and share winter with 50,000 youth each year by 2028.
Please join me by supporting this initiative with a follow on social media or a donation to give more youth the chance to experience and love winter the way so many of us do.sharewinter.org