Olympic Gold Medalist takes a ride with USAF Thunderbirds

Before the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds took to the skies to practice ahead of this Thursday’s graduation ceremony at the Academy, the pilots gave a very special ride to two-time Olympic gold medalist skier and native to Colorado, Mikaela Shiffrin.

Shiffrin said, “I got this opportunity and I was like, ‘I have to do that, it’s a no brainer.'”

After an all morning briefing and training, she tried to keep things as light as possible. “Let’s do slalom in the air, never done that before,” said Shiffrin.

The Olympic medalist suited up, tightened her harness and took to the sky. Her pilot, Jason Markzon said, “We were going between 500 and 600 miles per hour.”

Shiffrin is used to going fast in competition, but she says this was a whole new ball game. An inflight camera shows Shiffrin in the cockpit as the Thunderbird hit nine Gs.

“I don’t know, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” said Shiffrin. “It’s just something absolutely insane.”

As for the Thunderbirds, they will continue to practice until their big show on Thursday. They will hit the sky just after the hat toss at about 2:30 p.m.