(Reuters) – Mikaela Shiffrin on Wednesday said she was happy to be home and resting after suffering a puncture wound in her abdomen and severe muscle trauma during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont last weekend.
Shiffrin was chasing a milestone 100th win after setting the fastest time on her first run but, with the finish line in sight, she caught an edge that sent one ski flying as she tumbled and crashed into the safety netting.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist remained down for several minutes before being taken on a sled to a medical clinic.
“I’m so excited to be home now and to sleep in my own bed,” Shiffrin said in a video in which she confirmed she would not compete at Beaver Creek this weekend.
The 29-year-old said the wound to the right side of her abdomen did not impact her colon as had been originally feared.
“Whatever stabbed in there did a little dancey dance inside of my obliques and tore a cavern into my oblique muscles, so that’s what’s causing bleeding, inflammation and pain in general,” she said.
Shiffrin missed six weeks after injuring her knee in a high-speed crash in January while competing in a World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo and subsequently dropped the discipline from her schedule.
“This is another fairly ambiguous injury and it’s really hard to put a timeline for when I’ll be either back on snow or back to racing,” she said.
“I really look forward to cheering my teammates on racing Beaver Creek.”
The American became the most successful Alpine skier in World Cup history when she topped retired Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s record 86 wins in March, 2023.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, editing by Ed Osmond)
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