U.S. Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin marked the two-year anniversary of her father’s death on Wednesday “with a mangled little heart.”
The 2014 and 2018 gold medalist, who’s seeking more hardware at the Beijing Winter Olympics, shared a photo of herself as a girl sitting with her dad, Jeff Shiffrin. (Watch it below.)
Jeff Shiffrin died on Feb. 2, 2020, in a home accident at age 65. He was an anesthesiologist by trade but used his background in science to help his daughter with her training, The Associated Press noted. He was also a frequent presence on the ski circuit, cheering on his daughter while climbing trees for a better vantage point to take photos of her and other competitors.
“So much to say and nothing to say at all. It can’t be two years. Just can’t be,” Mikaela Shiffrin wrote in her Instagram post. “Just miss you with all of my mangled little heart. Just wish you could come back home. Just… love you most.”
While the anniversary of her father’s death inspired Shiffrin to reflect, it doesn’t always happen that way. “These moments of comprehension that he’s not coming back and he won’t ever be there again; they come randomly or they come with a trigger,” she told the AP back in January.
Shiffrin defends her giant slalom gold medal from 2018 beginning on Sunday.
