What Makes a Champion?

What does it take to become a champion?

What words come to mind?

Dedication?

Perseverance?

Consistency?

Passion?

Will?

Belief?

Spirit?

Skill?

I'm sure there are many more but these are those that pop into my mind.

In the United States, we are mostly absorbed with Baseball, Basketball and Football, and many of our recognizable "Champions" come from these sports. Of course, my favorite is Hockey, which is in a league of its own. For others it may be tennis or golf or a host of other sports which each produces their champions.

But there is one that misses much of the recognition it deserves. If you're not a skier then you most likely do not follow the sport either. Skiing is quite a seasonal sport, of course, and its season is much shorter than bicycling. Yet, world sales of bicycles only surpass skis sold by a factor of 5. That's quite astounding to me!

There are all types of skiing as well, from Nordic to Alpine, various free-style as well as all the snow boarding events.

This past ski season, Elke and I followed the Alpine FIS World Cup very closely, both the Men's and the Women's; and what a season it was.

Now if you watched the Winter Olympics at all it would have been nearly impossible to have missed one of the greatest disappointments for the Americans at the games - Mikaela Shiffrin. Her journey over the past couple years has been filled with highs and lows following the accidental death of her father - who was her anchor in the sport.

At the Olympics, Mikaela participated in 5 events and was expected to take several golds - she DNF'd in four of those. Mikaela rarely, if ever, does not finish - but for whatever reason, this Olympics turned out to be a great misfortune.

Now, several weeks later the FIS World Cup season is complete - and guess who is recognized as the OVERALL CUP winner? Mikaela Shiffrin. She did it. In fact, she is only the second person in history to capture a 4th title. The other? Lindsey Vaughn. The difference? It took 17 years for Lindsey to do what Mikaela has done in 11. Mikaela is recognized as one of the BEST women skiers in HISTORY!

So how did she do it? How did she recover from that misfortune in China? What words would you use? What makes a champion? For me, Mikaela is the epitome of a TRUE Champion.