Mikaela Shiffrin’s bid for a record-extending 100th career World Cup came undone when the American crashed late in her second run of the giant slalom event at Killington, Vermont, on Saturday and was taken off the slope on a sled.
Shiffrin posted the fastest first run and looked well on course to reach the milestone after a blazing start to her second run before a sudden crash sent her slamming into the safety netting and left onlookers stunned.
The two-time Olympic gold medallist remained down for several minutes before being transported off the hill on a rescue sled.
As they saw the American come into view on the sled, the home crowd who had shown up eager to witness a milestone win offered polite applause.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s hope of recording her 100th World Cup win is ended by an unexpected fall 💔
We send our best wishes and hope Mikaela is okay 🫶 pic.twitter.com/Oj3gFTZEPb
— Eurosport (@eurosport) November 30, 2024
“The course and conditions are really spectacular,” Shiffrin had said after finishing the first run with a 0.32-second advantage over Sweden’s Sara Hector.
“It’s pretty straightforward and I think there may be some spots on the hill with a few stones that are kind of surfacing as people ski.
“Some of the skiers coming down they look fine, and then their ski just slips out. And the surface is actually really great so I don’t think it’s an issue of not enough grip so much as you hit a stone and you lose your edge.”
Hector went on to win with a combined time of one minute 53.08 seconds to beat Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic by 0.54 seconds. Switzerland’s Camille Rast was third.
“It’s so sad of course for Mikaela, a crash like that after she was skiing so well. It breaks my heart,” said Hector.
Shiffrin missed six weeks after injuring her knee in a high-speed crash in January while competing in the World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo. In October she said she would drop the discipline from her schedule for this season.
Since returning from injury in March, Shiffrin has shown no signs of rust. She closed last season with a pair of slalom wins before adding another two to her haul this month.
If Shiffrin avoids injury, she will have another chance at her 100th win on Sunday in the slalom event. She has won the slalom at Killington in six of the seven years it has been held there.
The 29-year-old Shiffrin began the season needing three wins to reach the century mark on the World Cup circuit and set herself up to accomplish the feat on home snow with back-to-back slalom victories in Finland and Austria over the last two weeks.
She established herself as the most successful Alpine skier in World Cup history, male or female, when she topped retired Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s decades-old record of 86 World Cup victories in March 2023.
The closest woman on the all-time list is Lindsey Vonn with 82.