Mikaela Shiffrin suffered one of the biggest heartbreaks of her career recently. After winning a record 99 World Cups, the US skiing legend was waiting to get to her 100th win. Surprisingly, everything looked to be aligning perfectly for Shiffrin to cherish her historic milestone. After all, she had the chance to treat her fans to an absolute blast right on her home soil. With the mood being set and a full house crowd cheering to the top of their voices, the Giant Slalom in Killington, Vermont, came with an unexpected twist. 

Initially, things looked quite routine as Shiffrin took an early lead to take one step closer to 100. However, while on her second race, the skiing queen had things going north. Shiffrin had a bad bump that led to her crashing brutally onto the safety net. The medical team soon rushed to her and scooped her away to the hospital. Luckily for her, Shiffrin did not suffer any internal damage to the organs and got away with a puncture wound. Over the course of her recovery, the skiing legend has uploaded videos tracking her progress. While she posted one right from her hospital bed, her fans got overjoyed when they saw the skier was able to walk. On December 22nd, Shiffrin came up with yet another update. 

Finally, the skiing legend has shared some positive news about her recovery. In a recently uploaded video, Shiffrin has spoken about 3 very exciting recovery signs post her horrible crash. With her best friend urging her to upload the same, Shiffrin stated that the first positive thing was that she was able to laugh. “So my best friend has been asking me basically every day. What are three positive things that have happened to you today? And I thought that I would share that because it’s really nice. So three positive things that have happened this week. Number one, I can laugh.”

And that was not all. There were two more things that Shiffrin experienced this week that got her all jolly. “Number two, I could start driving this week. And number three, like, way too excited about this one. My abs are starting to come back. Okay, it’s not without like so much effort, but it’s very exciting,” said Shiffrin in her latest update. Surely, these were some pleasant recovery signs for the alpine skiing queen.

Unfortunately, despite showing rapid recovery signs, the fans will have to wait a bit longer to see her back in action. In fact, there is no fixed timeline given on when Mikaela Shiffrin will be able to make a comeback to the snow, and the reason is health complications.

Mikaela Shiffrin will have a delayed comeback owing to recent surgery

Mikaela Shiffrin’s recovery has been quite impressive. Thus, fans opined that she might be able to make a swift turnaround to aim for her 100th win. Unfortunately, that will not be the case, as the 29-year-old had to go for surgery. To clean out a puncture wound, Shiffrin opted for the surgery. During the Birds of Prey event at Beaver Creek, Shiffrin took to her Instagram and posted, “Biggest bummer right now is that I can’t get up to the finish to watch my teammates race @bcworldcup in person. But I’m watching and cheering on TV!”

In the post, Shiffrin also mentioned that she did not have any plans to get the surgery done initially. However, after developing complications, she has been using a wound vacuum to attend to her puncture. Explaining the situation further, the 29-year-old mentioned, “Turns out I had a little cavity deeper than the wound tract that was filled with old hematoma and wasn’t properly draining with wound vac or normal packing… So we went in to wash it out and close it with sutures.” As a result, things will now be delayed significantly and her historic 100th win will have to wait a bit longer. Thus, with bright updates coming from Mikaela Shiffrin, the fans now are eager to know when they can watch their favorite skier dominating the snow again.