VISION54

Alysa Liu just won Olympic gold. She retired at 16. Was traumatized by the sport. Wouldn't go near an ice rink. And just delivered a career-best on the biggest stage on earth. It's the most compelling comeback story in sports right now. At 13, Liu was the youngest US national champion ever. At 16, she finished 6th at the Olympics. She was a prodigy being told what to eat, what to wear, what music to skate to, and when to train. She lived in a dorm alone at the Olympic Training Center. And she was miserable. "The rink was my home for far too long... And I didn't have a choice," So she quit. She'd lost something essential: the feeling that any of it was hers. She had no autonomy. So she went the other direction. She went to Nepal. Trekked to Everest Base Camp. Got her driver's license. Dyed her hair. Attended college. She lived life. As Liu put it: “Quitting was definitely, and still to this day, one of my best decisions ever.” She built an identity that wasn't tied solely to the ice. She figured out who she was as a human being. Then in early 2024, she went skiing and felt something she hadn't felt in two years: an adrenaline rush. If skiing feels like this, what would skating feel like? She went to a public session. Landed a double axel and triple salchow on the spot. Two weeks later, she was back, but this time on her own terms. She came back because she wanted to. "I choose to be here. I loved that I was able to come back and choose my own destiny." That shift from external obligation to internal choice is the point. A mountain of research tells us autonomy is one of the most powerful driver of sustained motivation. Self-Determination Theory is one of the most established theories in psychology. When people feel ownership over their pursuits, performance goes up, burnout goes down, and creativity skyrockets. Her coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, nailed it: "For many years she was dropped off at the rink. She was told what to do. Now she comes in, and it is all collaborative." She picks her own music. Designs her own costumes. Controls her training load. "No one's gonna starve me or tell me what I can and can't eat." We often get performance wrong. We think the path to greatness is more control, more structure, more sacrifice. We push young phenoms to "grind", to be disciplined... Not realizing we're often extinguishing the flame that makes them great. It's what psychologist Ellen Winner found when studying prodigies. They have the "rage to master," but over controlling environments suck the passion and joy out of them, snugging out that rage. Those who make it to adult staff have support, but their drive is more intrinsic than extrinsic. Liu's career-best came AFTER she walked away, lived her life, and came back with agency. Tonight she skated to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park with platinum blonde streaks, a lip piercing, and the biggest smile in the building. Career-best 226.79. First American woman to win Olympic gold in figure skating in 24 years. It was pure joy. Her message to the camera: "That's what I'm f---ing talking about." Everyone wants to know the secret to elite performance. It's not complicated. Give people ownership. Let them bring themselves to the performance, instead of squashing the joy and authenticity out of them. Alysa Liu retired at 16 because skating wasn't hers anymore. She won Olympic gold at 20 because it finally was. Be yourself. Go all the way.

I won.🥇

Keep showing up. You're never out until you're out. Mikaela Shiffrin's path hasn’t been easy. She’s endured otherworldly pressure, loss, grief, breakdowns, injuries, and failures. But she kept going. She kept being herself. Now she’s back on top of the mountain—an embodiment of excellence in every way: Shiffrin won her first gold medal at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at the age of 18. From then on, she was a perennial favorite to win nearly every alpine ski event. She performed well in 2018, taking home another gold (and silver). In 2022, she was favored to win at least 3 golds. She didn’t come home with a single medal of any color. It was a devastating result. Shiffrin’s father, Jeffrey, to whom she was extremely close, died unexpectedly following an accident at his home in 2020. Of course this affected her skiing, but it was about so much more. In a poignant 2022 piece on her experience of grief for The Player’s Tribune, Shiffrin wrote: "It's like you have an injury in your soul. There is no timetable. There is no rehabilitation. Some days you wake up and think, What's the point?" Shiffrin continued to dominate World Cup races. In 2023, she broke the record for the most wins with 87. But then, at the end of 2024, during a crash, she suffered a severe puncture wound to her abdomen. The injury required surgery, hospitalization, and a long road to recovery—and not just physically. Shiffrin shared how she experienced PTSD from the crash, which caused her to hesitate, slow down, and feel gut-wrenching anxiety before races. But she kept going. She surrounded herself with good people. She did therapy for her body and mind. She was vulnerable and courageous. In 2025, she passed 100 World Cup wins. It’s an extraordinary number that easily makes her the best alpine skier of all time. And yet, and yet... The disappointment of the 2022 Olympic Games still loomed. Heading into the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games, Shiffrin carried all of this. The expectations. The grief. The anxiety. The injury. The success. The failure. The ever-scrutinizing public eye. It is truly impossible to understand what that kind of pressure is like. It is not a normal human experience. Especially with today’s 24-7 news coverage, social media, and opinions from armchair experts who have been no where near stepping into the arena. The start of the 2026 Games went South for Shiffrin. In the team combined race, where she and her partner were among the favorites, they finished fourth after Shiffrin's subpar slalom. She then finished 11th in the women’s giant slalom. Instead of becoming angry, resentful, or spiraling, Shiffrin celebrated her teammates. "I'm gonna call it sweetbitter rather than bittersweet, because we got to watch our teammates get a medal, which is incredible," she said. Days later, on the start line of the individual slalom race, Shiffrin took a deep breath. As I was watching, I thought to myself that inhale and exhale contained within it so much texture, so many challenges, so much pressure, so much life—the good, the bad, and the ugly. Shiffrin went out the gate and dominated her first run. And then, on her second run, she did it again. A gold medal performance. Incredible. Extraordinary. A moment for the ages. Mikaela and I first connected when she shared something I wrote a few years back: “There is no greater trap than thinking the accomplishment of some goal will change your life. What will change your life is who you become in the process of going for it.” That quote became the centerpiece of "The Way of Excellence." I know Mikaela is proud of the medal. But I bet even more so, she’s proud of who she’s become, and is still becoming. Mikaela Shiffrin embodies excellence. Excellence does not mean control. It does not mean perfection. It means the ability to meet the moment with presence, flexibility, and a next-play mindset. It’s staying in the game. It’s giving your all. It’s beginning again. It’s responding instead of reacting. It’s stepping into the arena. It’s caring deeply. It’s laying it on the line. It’s doing all this while staying grounded. While keeping your head up. While showing up as best you can. While running the race in front of you.

I love these comments from Collin Morikawa on Sunday. Giving up on the quest for perfection was key to unlocking success. “I think I’ve been trying to make golf so perfect. … You forget how to 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙜𝙤𝙡𝙛,” he said after his first win since 2023. “I think looking back when I was 10, 12, 15 growing up on Chevy Chase (his childhood course), playing 10 holes, dropping three balls, like, 𝙄 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙚𝙙 𝙜𝙤𝙡𝙛. “I’ve gone so far away from that creativity. I think the last two days, I went to go 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮 𝙜𝙤𝙡𝙛.” This is an interesting realization from Collin, who last year would put up crazy good SG: Approach numbers but still express displeasure with his iron game because he wasn’t producing his preferred trajectory all the time. I think Scottie is the ultimate example of this, the epitome of “playing golf” in our Trackman era. Guys have watched him succeed hitting such a variety of shots and with a stellar short game that bails him out when things aren’t perfect. Rory intimated as much when he won at Pebble last year. Golf is made to drive perfectionists insane (I know from personal experience). The ball is just sitting there. There’s no defense charging at you. It provides the illusion that perfection is possible, even if we all know it is not. It feels counterintuitive, but accepting mistakes, failure and shortcomings is often a clearer path to success than accepting nothing short of perfection. It paid off for Collin.