Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a deep puncture wound to her abdomen and “severe muscle trauma” during her crash in a race on Saturday but she escaped serious bone, ligament or organ damage.
The five-time overall World Cup champion is sidelined for the Killington Cup slalom race on Sunday. There is no timetable for her return to competition, the US Ski Team said in a statement released before the start of the slalom, which was won by Switzerland’s Camille Rast for her first career World Cup victory.
“Following her crash in yesterday’s giant slalom at the Stifel Killington Cup, Mikaela was taken down by sled and transferred by ambulance to be evaluated at Rutland Regional Medical Center,” the US Ski Team said. “There was no ligament damage assessed. Bones and internal organs look OK. There is a puncture wound into the right side of her abdomen and severe muscle trauma.”
Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the giant slalom on Saturday as she chased her 100th World Cup win. With the finish line in sight on her second run, the 29-year-old leaned into the hill, lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping head over skis. She then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing.
Shiffrin stayed down on the side of the course for quite some time. She asked for a sled to take her down the mountain, because she “was in shock, entirely unable to move and worried about internal organ trauma,” Shiffrin said in a statement.
Shiffrin was transported by ambulance to a medical center, where she said doctors decided not to stitch the abdomen wound because it is “too deep and there is risk of infection,” Shiffrin explained.
Shiffrin has rehabbed from two previous on-hill injuries during her 14-year career: a torn medial collateral ligament and bone bruising in her right knee in December 2015 and a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee after a downhill crash in January 2024. Neither knee injury required surgery, and both times, Shiffrin was back to racing within two months.
Sore from the crash, Shiffrin won’t attend the slalom on Sunday – a race she has dominated. Shiffrin has won six of the seven times she competed in the slalom at Killington. She is a fan favorite at the venue after growing up in New Hampshire and Colorado and sharpening her skills at the nearby Burke Mountain Academy.
“She can’t walk very well right now, so she can’t get to the venue even though she is dying to cheer for her teammates in person,” the statement from the team said. “She will be cheering loudly from her place in Killington.”
