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By Peggy Shinn and Pat Graham/AP
Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a deep puncture wound on the right side of her abdomen and “severe muscle trauma” during her scary crash in a giant slalom race on Saturday but no serious bone, ligament or organ damage.
The five-time overall World Cup champion from Vail was sidelined for the Killington Cup slalom race Sunday. There’s no timetable for her return to racing, the U.S. Ski Team said in a statement sent out before the start of the slalom, which was won by Swiss skier Camille Rast for her first career World Cup victory.
Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS on Saturday as she chased after 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.
The banged-up Shiffrin stayed down on the side of the course for quite some time. She asked for a sled to take her down, because she “was in shock, entirely unable to move and worried about internal organ trauma,” Shiffrin said in a statement.
Transported by ambulance to a medical center, doctors who evaluated her determined she had no ligament damage and that her bones and internal organs “look OK,” according to the statement from the team. The team added that Shiffrin suffered severe muscle trauma and a puncture wound on the right side of her abdomen. She did not receive stitches because the wound is “too deep and there is risk of infection,” Shiffrin explained.
Over her 14-year career, Shiffrin has rehabbed from two previous on-hill injuries: 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 couldn’t attend the slalom race 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 both New Hampshire and Colorado and sharpening her skills at 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.”
Graham reported from Denver.
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