It seems woes aren’t ending for Mikaela Shiffrin! While fans were eager to see the Alpine Skiing GOAT lift her 100th World Cup victory in the 2024-25 season, the unexpected injury has left everything under a veil of doubt. Right after the win in Gurgl in November, Shiffrin was dealt a blow in the form of an abdominal puncture wound in Killington, Vermont, which rendered her out of commission. Now, as she waits to make her return to the icy slopes, the 29-year-old can’t help but feel the blues as the FIS Ski World Cup action returns to one of her favorite racecourses.

On Tuesday, Austria’s Flachau will host the next Slalom race of the World Cup series. However, it won’t be the place where Shiffrin can celebrate her century of WC victories. But that doesn’t mean she will not be following the thriller and rallying behind the others in hopes of seeing them bring glory to the country.

On January 13, Mikaela Shiffrin took to X to note her emotions about having to miss out on racing down on one of her favorite spots. “I’ll miss you, Flachau,” she wrote while pointing out that she will nonetheless be cheering for the Team USA athletes. “One of the best races, with the best atmosphere on the @fisalpineWorld Cup circuit!!” She also highlighted her love for the course and why it would be a sad affair for her.

“That’s a race that means a lot to me. Over the course of my career, it have been so many incredible moments,” she said, noting that she has had some incredible moments at Flachau over the years. Naturally, having to sit it out due to her injury is a difficult thing to negotiate. Shiffrin also said, “I’m really gonna miss racing it this year, but so looking forward to cheering on all my teammates, the whole US ski team.” It was here on the Austrian slope where Mikaela won her 94th World Cup victory last year in January. Justifiably, the snag that’s prevented her from participating in the race this 2024-25 season is weighing down heavily on her.

During racing at Killington on November 30 last year, Shiffrin felt like “something stabbed” her. The abrasion saw her getting rushed to the hospital. Mikaela’s fiancé, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, remembers how “she didn’t move. She was just laying there. She’s not even lifting her legs,” after the crash in the teaser for the ‘Moving Right Along’ docuseries teaser released on December 29th, 2024. The doctors cleared her wound and gave her a wound vacuum for the fluid. However, that didn’t do its work, and Shiffrin had to undergo surgery to remove the fluid. She posted on social media the very same day after the injury, leaving fans concerned. Thankfully, injuries have never managed to keep her down, and the Alpine skiing icon is already on her way back.

It’s not ‘whether’ but ‘when’ for Mikaela Shiffrin

The Colorado native updated fans on her condition in mid-December after she returned home post-surgery. “Basic movements are starting to get easier and more fluid, and in general the soreness is improving a bit which is just wonderful,” she wrote on Instagram. However, she still didn’t set a time for her return to the 2024-25 World Cup season. And yet, she couldn’t thank the medical team enough for helping to hasten her recovery process. On January 8th this year, Shiffrin made a brief return to the snow. After intensive training under the supervision of physical therapist Regan Dewhirst, Shiffrin managed to train again and do three runs. And she immediately felt better.

“[It] was a successful on-snow test. We did three runs, nothing crazy, but that was so fun,” she said. Now, while she waits to get the green signal from the doctors, fans can only speculate when they will be able to see the Skier return to her natural habitat. The FIS Ski World Cup will continue all the way through February and finish in late March. Do you think that’s a long enough timeline for Shiffrin to get her skiing boots on? When do you see her making a comeback? Tell us in a comment!