Colorado Springs, CO – U.S. Ski Team sensation and Sochi Olympic hopeful Mikaela Shiffrin was named the January Athlete of the Month by the U.S. Olympic Committee for two stunning Audi FIS Alpine World Cup victories.

“It’s really excited to be nominated for this award and humbling to win,” she said today. “It proves to myself that I actually am competing on a global scale. It’s not my little races back in New Hampshire anymore.”

Shiffrin, of Eagle, Colo., thrilled an overflowing Croatian crowd with a stunning 1.19-second slalom victory to take the prestigious Snow Queen Trophy to open the month in Zagreb, Croatia. The wire-to-wire win rewrote history as the 17-year-old became the first American to win two world cup races in a single season before the age of 18. She also became the youngest woman to win two world cup slalom races in a single season since 1977.

In her next slalom event two weeks later, Shiffrin triumphed again with a stunning come-from-behind win in Flachau, Austria. She capped the month with a third-place finish in the Moscow City Event to increase her lead in the world cup slalom standings before heading to the 42nd FIS Alpine Ski World Championships in Schladming, where she’s expected to start slalom and giant slalom.

“This year has been really cool, not just because of my skiing, but because my skiing has allowed me to meet and interact with so many great athletes,” Shiffrin added. “I’m Tweeting with freestyle athletes and snowboarders and it’s cool to know that athletes from other sports are cheering for me, just as much as I’m cheering for them. I guess that’s what makes Olympic sports so special. It’s the pinnacle of sport and it’s the one place where we’re all one team.”

A voting panel selected Shiffrin from a pool of nominees submitted by National Governing Bodies across the spectrum of summer and winter Olympic sports with online fan voting via Twitter accounting for a percentage of the total vote.