Killington was buzzing with anticipation when Mikaela Shiffrin got ready to slide down the snow a few weeks back. After all, having notched up 99 World Cup victories, her own country looked like the best possible venue to achieve a historic 100th title. Quite expectedly, Shiffrin was excited and so were the 27,000 people cheering in the crowd. Unfortunately, sometimes even the best plans do not work out and that was what transpired with the alpine skiing legend. 

Going for her initial run, it looked like a usual day at the office for Shiffrin. Leading the race, the iconic skier looked ready to pick up her historic victory. Soon, things took an extremely dark turn. In the blink of an eye, Shiffrin was down and was plummeting downhill aggressively until she thumped into the safety netting. With the stadium packed to the brim, the eerie pin-drop silence was signaling that something terrible had happened. Making the worst fears come true, Shiffrin could be seen attended by medical professionals and then carried off on a sled. 

Now, after weeks have passed and the skiing legend making leaps in her recovery process, the experience still haunts Shiffrin and her family. In a recent YouTube upload of her ‘Moving Right Along’ series, Shiffrin and her fiance looked back at the terrifying incident. Recalling the moment right after Shiffrin had crashed, Aleks Kilde, her fiance, who is also a Norwegian skier stated, “The next thing I see is like she needs to have help into the sled with she’s not even lifting her legs. Yeah, she basically looked a little bit almost paralyzed, her eyes like really pale.”

Kilde further mentioned that the very first interaction he had with the skiing legend was at the hospital bed. Thankfully, by then, Shiffrin had regained a lot of her consciousness and was responding normally to the ones around her. “I think the first time l talked to her was in the hospital. Yeah, and she was calling herself, and she said things are okay. Yeah, which was a relief,” said Shiffrin’s fiance. Next up, it was Shiffrin who detailed her injury further. Having suffered a puncture wound, the 29-year-old showed the hole in her body. She stated that the doctors stuck a gauze up the wound and pulled out the wick daily for the blood to come out.

Shiffrin also detailed that while her cut was not a big one, it went deep for sure. Having suffered a 7cm deep puncture, the wound restricted the skiing legend’s movement by cutting through some of her internal and external obliques. The skier also doubled down on how important of a role the oblique muscles played in skiing. She stated that apart from the legs, it is the obliques that stabilize the core while a skier glides through the glistening snow.

Mikaela Shiffrin provides an important update on her Alpine return

While it is known that Shiffrin avoided the danger with a puncture wound, there has been a secondary complication that has flared up. In an exclusive interaction with skiracing.com published on December 16, Shiffrin detailed a cavity that was deeper than the wound. And this was allegedly filled with old hematoma. With no other option left, Shiffrin had to agree on surgery to drain out the hematoma completely. 

Unfortunately, this bit of update means that there is no certainty when Shiffrin will take to the snow again. Reflecting on the same, the 29-year-old icon said to skiracing.com, “I think if all things had gone perfectly and all the drainage just came out, we were pretty sure the season would be possible. It just depends on how I improve over the next weeks and months. There’s not a lot of precedent for this injury in our sport.” 

Stressing the importance of the surgery, Shiffrin explained how a sharp turn on a Slalom or a GS might cause significant pressure on the muscles leading to more damage. Thus, with Mikaela Shiffrin en route to recovery, the skiing fans will have to wait a bit to finally see their dreams of the legend winning the 100th World Cup become a reality.