From the Dolomites, a theatrical mountain range that leaves us stoned in America, the only story Wednesday was Mikaela Shiffrin. She confirmed her place as the greatest of alpine skiers with an Olympic victory — her first medal since 2018 — and quieted her “keyboard warriors,” which would include me. Didn’t I ask why she was among various U.S. disappointments at the Winter Games, which needed her to burst away and win a gold medal in the slalom?

She did precisely that, at long last, allowing us to bury what JD Vance was blathering about Eileen Gu. The Vice President had more words when he needs to board a flight and go home, his prolonged presence doing more to disturb athletes than help them. Shiffrin ended a disturbing absence at the podium and rallied her countrypeople by speaking about her father. He died in an accident six years ago, at their Colorado home, when he fell and suffered a violent head injury. His daughter has needed the years to move on. At 30, she found her historic pace on the hill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, where she hugged her mother after winning by a huge 1.50 seconds.

“This was a moment I have dreamed about — I’ve also been very scared of this moment,” Shiffrin explained. “Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience. It’s like being born again. And I still have so many moments where I resist this.

“I don’t want to be in life without my dad. And maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this, like, reality.”

This was the other side of a bleak world. She has lost and crashed twice and wondered about her life, somehow missing a medal four years ago in six Beijing races. This year, she continued to struggle in the team combined, finishing 15th in the slalom and 11th in the giant slalom. Would she ever win at the Games after breaking through in 2014 and winning in Sochi? Her father remained in her thoughts before what could be her last Olympic race.

“And then, I was thinking about the fact that I actually can show up today, and honestly say in the start gate that I have all the tools that are necessary to do my best skiing, and to earn that moment,” she said, before completing the largest Olympic victory margin in the sport since 1998. “So, so much work just to be able to show up for two runs, 47 seconds, and do something that’s within me that I know how to do, but it’s not always easy. I felt pride before it happened. We took that pride into the day. That was wonderful.

“I felt every range of emotion in the last three months, the last four months, the last four years, the last eight years. There’s so many different journeys I’ve been on to just be here.”

Watching her was fun and good enough to lead NBC’s coverage, not always happy in Italy. Was it necessary for Vance to point out that Gu, who has won two silver medals for China, should be representing America — were she was born and raised in San Francisco before training at Lake Tahoe and schooling at Stanford? On the modeling circuit, she has made more than $23 million with Tiffany, Louis Vuitton, Porsche and Red Bull. Gu would bring a wave of magnificence to the U.S. Her mother is from China, which influenced her decision.

Said Vance: “I certainly think that somebody who grew up in the United States of America, who benefited from our education system, from the freedoms and liberties that make this country a great place, I would hope that they want to compete with the United States of America. So, I’m going to root for American athletes, and I think part of that is people who identify themselves as Americans. That’s who I’m rooting for this Olympics.”

It’s her choice, not his. She won two gold and a silver in 2022, in Beijing, but has fallen a bit short this time. Someone asked if she is winning or losing in Italy. She laughed.

“I’m the most decorated female free-skier in history, I think that’s an answer in and of itself,” Gu said. “How do I say this? Winning a medal at the Olympics is a life-changing experience for every athlete. Doing it five times is exponentially harder because every medal is equally hard for me, but everybody else’s expectations rise, right?

“The two-medals-lost situation, to be quite frank with you, I think is kind of a ridiculous perspective to take. I’m showcasing my best skiing, I’m doing things that quite literally have never been done before so I think that is more than good enough, but thank you.”

Let her skate and mug for China. We will take pleasure in Mikaela Shiffrin, the first American skier to win three Alpine golds. She overcame the most wicked stress of her life, the death of a loved one. Today, she has returned to who she is. And what she is.

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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.