Mikaela Shiffrin joins NWSL’s Denver ownership: ‘Good time to at least dip my toes in the water’

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Long before Mikaela Shiffrin became a World Cup-winning Alpine skier, the two-time Olympic gold medalist dabbled in the world’s beautiful game.

“Oh my gosh… when we weren’t skiing, we were playing soccer,” a giddy Shiffrin told The Athletic as she reflected on moments from her childhood. “We were juggling. We were dribbling. We were doing drills in the wintertime.”

Shiffrin remembers playing for Lightning Soccer Club in Hanover, New Hampshire, and coming up with soccer-centric games to play in her basement with her brother and best friends. Soccer drills became part of her cross-training. But when she set out to become one of the greatest skiers of all time, soccer slowly faded into the past.

That was until this week, when Shiffrin became the newest investor in NWSL Denver, the first professional women’s soccer team in her home state of Colorado.

The franchise announced Shiffrin as the latest member of their ownership group on Tuesday, as the team continues to race towards their inaugural season next year. While financial terms were not disclosed, Shiffrin described herself as a “small-level investor” in the team.

“I’ve had conversations on and off over the years with several different people who are pretty heavily invested in women’s sports, and this felt like a good time to at least dip my toes in the water,” Shiffrin said.

“It’s obviously a huge investment opportunity, and maybe an opportunity that I have even a little bit greater access to than most people, being a female athlete from Colorado. But I’m super grateful for that.”

Denver was awarded the right to become the NWSL’s 16th team. (Erin Chang / ISI Photos / Getty Images; Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic)

With a record 101, Shiffrin has the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history. She is the only athlete to win all six alpine disciplines, and remains the youngest slalom gold medalist in Olympic history, achieving that feat at 18 years and 345 days old.

Shiffrin joins an ownership group led by insurance executive and controlling owner Rob Cohen. The group features investments from Project Level, a subsidiary of Ariel Investments led by Mellody Hobson and former Washington Commanders president Jason Wright; FirstTracks Sports Ventures LLC, led by siblings Jon-Erik Borgen and Kaia Borgen Moritz; and investors Neelima Joshi and Dhiren Jhaveri and Molly Coors.

“Mikaela’s commitment to excellence, her global impact, and her deep Colorado roots make her a perfect addition to our ownership group,” Cohen said in a statement. “We’re building a club with purpose, and having Mikaela’s vision and voice in that journey will be invaluable.”

NWSL Denver is the league’s 16th club, beginning play alongside fellow expansion team Boston Legacy FC in 2026. The club, which was awarded expansion rights in January, has steadily released a stream of updates in recent months. They unveiled plans for a 12,000-seat temporary stadium and performance center in Centennial, Colorado, and announced plans for a permanent stadium in Denver’s urban core. The team hired its first front-office employee, with Jen Millet joining the club as their inaugural president from Bay FC.

For Shiffrin, joining NWSL Denver marks her first investment in a professional sports team, as the skier expands her portfolio and finds ways to give back through sport. The latter is something she’s committed to more extensively in recent years.

In February, the 30-year-old announced a partnership with the Share Winter Foundation to celebrate her 100th World Cup victory at Sestriere in Italy’s western Alps. The group’s mission is to make winter sports more accessible, with Shiffrin aiming to raise $100,000 for youth programs. She also co-founded the Jeff Shiffrin Athlete Resiliency Fund in memory of her father, who died in 2020. The fund provides need-based, direct-to-athlete stipends to support U.S. ski and snowboard athletes’ careers.

Investing in NWSL Denver for Shiffrin is another way to give back. The hope is that, by investing, she can help create a foundation so women’s professional sports teams in Colorado can reap the benefits of their state’s rabid fan base.

Shiffrin holds the record for most World Cup wins. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP via Getty Images)

“I’m excited to see that in the context of the women’s side, because it’s been very male-centric in Colorado for quite a while,” Shiffrin said. “We have incredible female athletes. We have incredible women soccer players, but, you know, playing everywhere else.

“It would be so cool in the future if we could see some of our Colorado-born soccer players coming back and playing for this team. … Then it’s that trickle-down effect of what you see over the next 10 years, the next 15 years, and then it gets really exciting in the next 20 years, when it’s like, these kids who were not even born, necessarily, when this was starting to be developed.”

Shiffrin envisions her role with NWSL Denver to be “very low-level.” She hopes to make it to games, so long as her schedule allows. She spends about two or three months in the calendar year at her home in Edwards, Colorado, juggling between her demanding athletic schedule and making time for family and friends. Right now, she’s in the thick of preparing for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina next year.

“The most that I can do, and like love to do, is talk about it and talk about the women’s teams and just help bolster the sport,” Shiffrin said. “Hopefully I’ll be able to go to some games and be able to pump everything up and just take part in it.”

While this is her first professional investment, it’s unlikely to be her last. She said she’ll keep her eyes open for what’s next.

“Over the next years, as I continue to grow and maybe become better positioned, I’m going to keep looking for opportunities,” Shiffrin said, “because it’s just incredible to see how sports are growing and growing, and the young kids out in the world are able to look at both male and female athletes, and athletes of all shapes and sizes and colors, and say, ‘This is an avenue that I can take. This is real for me, and I could aspire to be like that,’ and I think it’s really cool to help support that dream for the next generation.”

(Top photo: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)

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