“That was definitely scary” – Mikaela Shiffrin opens up about the hardest part of aftermath of horror World Cup crash

Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a horror crash on the slopes of Killington in 2024, with the subsequent injury putting her out of action for most of the season. Recently, the American got honest about the toughest part on her road to recovery after the accident.

Shiffrin began her 2024 season with 97 World Cup wins in her bag and was expected to become the first skier to win a 100 races early into the year. The American opened her season in Soelden, and while she missed out on the podium there, she went on to win the Levi and Gurgl races. With this, Shiffrin had a chance to claim her 100th World Cup win on homeground, but a scary crash on the slopes of Killington derailed her plans. The 30-year-old’s crash resulted in a puncture wound in her abdomen.

Recently, Mikaela Shiffrin opened up about her road back to the top after her injury. In a piece for The Players’ Tribune, the American explained that the scariest part of her crash came in the aftermath of the incident, writing,

“When I got back out on the snow, the part that I hoped would be fun and fulfilling again, something weird happened. For whatever reason, during my training runs, everything was just feeling kind of awful, and so far away from how I wanted to feel. My turns weren’t right, my movement was off, everything was just bad. I guess the best way to describe it is that I didn’t feel like myself out there on the mountain. It was like there was this strange disconnect between my body and my mind. And that was definitely scary.”

Shiffrin crashed in Killington in late November and returned to the slopes two months later, at the Courchevel World Cup that took place on January 30th.

Mikaela Shiffrin opens up about her key part of getting over her PTSD

After making her return to the slopes post Killington, Mikaela Shiffrin shared that the aftermath of the crash had left her dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In her recent piece for The Players’ Tribune, the American explained that showing up to the gates day after day was the key part that helped her overcome her PTSD, writing,

“I just needed to keep doing it. I needed to keep reminding myself, proving to myself, really, that the vast majority of times when I am training or racing, nothing terrible happens. The vast majority of times, I don’t end up with a puncture wound through my obliques. Like, most of the time, everything really does end up OK.”

After making a successful comeback from her crash, Mikaela Shiffrin won her 100th World Cup in Sestriere on February 23. A month later, she clinched her 101st World Cup victory at the season-ending World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Idaho.