Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the 2024 Ski World Cup hoping to turn things around. But when you’re on the mountain, danger and uncertainty loom at every turn. Caught up in one such unlucky moment, Shiffrin spent the latter half of her race in Killington, Vermont, being carried on a sled down the slope. Not on the podium basking in the glory of her 100th World Cup win, as she’d hoped.

However, if you were to ask the 2x Olympic gold medalist, she wouldn’t call her unlucky for this. As Shiffrin finally spills out the details of her crash and the severity of her recent injury, she counts herself among the blessed, as things could have gotten worse. Yet, Mikaela Shiffrin knows this may be the end of her ride for the moment, as a comeback from here looks very uncertain.

Mikaela Shiffrin’s puncture wound deflates her milestone dream for now

Speaking to the Washington Post, Mikaela Shiffrin opened up about the nerve-racking seconds of her crash, which passed in the blink of an eye but left her with both mental and physical scars. While describing the botched descent, she said, “It just happened so fast that I went straight into the gate at max speed. And then tumbled. It felt like I had 12 pairs of legs.” Her hip then stuck into a pole coming out of a gate and left her with an abrasion.

Given these admissions, Mikaela Shiffrin’s wound cannot be categorized as minor. Her remarks, “I’m really lucky, for sure. But I have not really felt that kind of pain — ever. Could not move on the side of the hill. Just fully in shock,” suggest that her injury has been quite severe. In fact, it’s so deep that there’s been a hole in her hip that could not be held together by stitches and needed an inserting device called a wick for it to be kept in place.

The wick or as Shiffrin would call it, ‘the tap-like thing that sticks out the hole and keeps the skin from closing’ has to be changed every 24 hours, with the reason of a high infection risk. Well, this is quite the shift from Mikaela Shiffrin’s update video from a day ago where she was heard saying that her injury’s not too much of a cause for concern. While that had relieved her fans, this update mounts tensions as Mikaela knows that 100 wins will now have to wait. So what’s next on the chart for Shiffrin? Well, she’s hoping to pack her bags and head home for a while.

Shiffrin’s 100th win looks uncertain as skier prepares for a turnaround

What’s Mikaela Shiffrin’s future at the 2024 FIS Ski World Cup looking like? Well, it’s hardly anything like she’d ever imagined. For now, Shiffrin’s primary goal is to grab enough rest in Vermont to stabilize her injury and move without pain. This would be a precautionary measure towards ensuring that Shiffrin can fly back home and that her injury doesn’t respond adversely to air travel.

Step two will then be to get back to Avon, Colorado where she can recover and then go through rehab. This clearly means that the U.S. Ski team will have to go ahead with the Beaver Creek leg of the event without the veteran. But there’s still time for the parting. Till then, Mikaela Shiffrin hopes to turn cheerleader. She admits wanting to move around a bit for just walking and supporting her teammates. She told the Washington Post, “By then, I’ll probably be moving a little bit better for just walking and everything. I’d like to be around the slopes to support my teammates, at least.” Do you think she can hit the big number this year? Let us know in the comments below!