Associated Press
Nov 30, 2024, 02:40 PM ET
KILLINGTON, Vt. -- American ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin was alert and being evaluated for injuries after crashing in her second run of a World Cup giant slalom race Saturday, doing a flip and sliding into the protective fencing.
Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd. The U.S. Ski Team said she was taken to a medical clinic for evaluation.
Shiffrin, 29, was leading after the first run and charging after her 100th World Cup win. She was within sight of the finish line, five gates onto Killington's steep finish pitch, when she lost the grip on her outside ski. She hit a gate and somersaulted before sliding into another gate. The fencing slowed her momentum as she came to an abrupt stop.
Reigning Olympic GS champion Sara Hector of Sweden won in a combined time of 1 minute, 53.08 seconds. But her thoughts were with Shiffrin.
"It's just so sad, of course, to see Mikaela crash like that and skiing so well," Hector said on the broadcast after her victory. "It breaks my heart and everybody else here."
The crash was a surprise, given that Shiffrin rarely records a DNF for did not finish. In 275 World Cup starts, she has only 19 DNFs. The last time she did not finish in GS was January 2018.
Saturday was shaping up to be a banner day for Shiffrin, who skied flawlessly in her first run and held a 0.32-second lead as she chased her 100th World Cup win in front of a home crowd. Shiffrin grew up in New Hampshire and Colorado and sharpened her skills at nearby Burke Mountain Academy.
Shiffrin is driven not as much by wins as by making the perfect run. She has shattered so many records along the way. She passed Lindsey Vonn's women's mark of 82 World Cup victories on Jan. 24, 2023, during a giant slalom in Kronplatz, Italy.
Nearly two months later, Shiffrin broke Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark's Alpine mark for the most World Cup wins when she captured her 87th career race.
Shiffrin has not suffered as many devastating injuries as many ski racers have. In her 14-year career, she has had to rehab only two injuries that happened on the hill: a torn MCL 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.
To date, she has earned five overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, along with a silver, and seven world championships.
Shiffrin's signature event, the slalom, will be held Sunday. She has won six of the seven slalom races she has entered at Killington.
Meanwhile, fans hoping to see the world's top female skiers compete next week in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, are out of luck. That World Cup stop was canceled Saturday because the weather has not been cold enough to produce the necessary snow.
