Team USA alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin got engaged to her fiancé, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, in April 2024 - but their romance journey didn't come without a few major slaloms along the way. Shiffrin, 30, and Kilde, a two-Olympic medalist in alpine skiing from Norway, began talking via Instagram in the winter of 2020, less than a year after Shiffrin's father, Jeff Shiffrin, died following an accident at the family's home in Colorado. "At the time, I could not imagine. I was like, 'I'm not doing this. I'm not going through love because I cannot go through losing people,'' Shiffrin exclusively told Us Weekly before the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics. "Maybe it sounds dramatic, but it's one of those things where you're just totally closed off to it." But still, Kilde, 33, persisted in his pursuit. Team USA's Isabeau Levito Pleads for Olympic Village Not to 'Evict' Her "I was like, 'Why does it feel different with you than anybody else who has reached out?'" Shiffin recalled. Their blossoming love story came on the heels of Shiffrin telling Kilde she wasn't interested - at least that's what he thought. "It was his last-ditch effort to reach out to me to have a date," Shiffrin said. "I had accidentally turned him down years prior and I thought he ghosted me." As Shiffrin explained, Kilde attempted to make his move after the two were guests at a dinner for one of their sponsors. "He was like, 'When are we having dinner?'" Shiffrin said. "I was like, 'We literally just had dinner.' I thought I was being funny. He thought I was rejecting him. I thought he ghosted me. It was this whole thing. Over the years I was like, 'I'm not going down this path. This kid is bad news. He ghosted me.' It was totally off base." NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 26: Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde attend the 2023 Time100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center on April 26, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images) Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Shiffrin said Kilde's messages arrived at a time when "that door was damn near entirely closed and locked." "He just found a way to be truthful and kind and made me feel a kind of safety that only people within my family can possibly provide," Shiffrin explained. "That was incredible. Flash forward several years and his support has meant the world. It's been life-saving in some ways. He's helped me grow and mature and learn about myself, to find ways to communicate. It's been a pretty incredible experience." Team USA's Hilary Knight Says Canada Rivalry Is More Intense Than Fans Realize The couple announced their engagement in April, but wedding planning will have to wait until after the 2026 Games. Shiffrin takes to the slopes for her final event, the women's slalom, on Wednesday, February 18, her last chance to earn a medal after coming up empty-handed in the team combined and giant slalom. "We've talked about it here and there," Shiffrin said of their upcoming nuptials. "We're just like, 'Do you want a big one or a small one?' It would be so fun to have a really, really big one and just invite everybody who's ever been impactful in our lives. But also that seems like a lot. What if we just do a really, really small one?" Shiffrin added, "Unfortunately we're so much of the same mindset that I don't know if it's going to be easy to make any decisions." The decision-making process will have to wait until Shiffrin competes in the women's slalom event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, which gets underway at 4 a.m. ET on Wednesday.