Mikaela Shiffrin reacts to WNBA star A'ja Wilson winning ESPYS' Best Athlete, Women's Sports award

Mikaela Shiffrin congratulated American professional basketball player A'ja Wilson on her ESPY Best Female Athlete of the Year honor. Wilson also won the 2023 ESPY award for Best WNBA Player.

Mikaela Shiffrin concluded her 2023/2024 alpine skiing season a few months ago and is yet to take flight for the 2024/2025 season which starts in October. Before she immerses in extensive training and competitions again, Shiffrin seems to have been exploring her penchant for another sport - basketball. This is not the first time she has extended wishes to a WNBA star before her return to skiing.

In April, Shiffrin had congratulated former Iowa Hawkeyes standout performer Caitlin Clark as she bid farewell to the team and joined the WNBA draft. After A'ja Wilson's recent achievement, Shiffrin shared a similar celebratory message for the basketballer.

A'ja Wilson, a two-time WNBA champion and the most decorated player on the Las Vegas Aces, won the 2024 ESPY for the Best Athlete Women's Sports. The team shared a collage of Wilson's photographs to celebrate the news on its Instagram handle.

"And the ESPY for the Best Athlete Women's Sports goes to.. HER [crown emoji]," the caption reads.

Mikaela Shiffrin shared the post on her Instagram story and lauded the basketball champion for receiving the monumental honor.

"Congratulations, Caja22wilson!! Very deserving #ESPYS," she wrote.

Mikaela Shiffrin's Instagram Stories (@mikaelashiffrin)

Wilson finished with 35+ points, 5+ steals and 10+ rebounds in the Aces' recent game against the Dallas Wings - the first player to achieve this feat in WNBA history. Her long list of laurels includes three SEC Player of the Year awards, the 2020 WNBA MVP award, and an Olympic gold from Tokyo 2020.

Mikaela Shiffrin won Best Athlete in Women's Sports at the 2023 ESPY Awards

In 2023, Shiffrin surpassed legendary alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark's 86 World Cup medals to become history's most decorated alpine skier.

At the 2023 ESPY Awards, Shiffrin climbed the stage to receive the same honor as Wilson's this year - of being the best female athlete - from presenters Kyrie Irving and Angel Reese.

She said in her speech (via Vail Daily):

"Honestly I have a whole stack of people I’d have to thank for literally getting me to where I am today through failure and through success. It’s been a long journey and it’s not over yet."

The 29-year-old further extended her tally of World Cup medals to 97 at the recently concluded 2023/24 Alpine Skiing World Cup, an achievement that etched Mikaela Shiffrin's name as the greatest in alpine skiing history.

About the author

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

Know More

Edited by Aayush Kapoor