Star U.S. skier Mikaela Shiffrin will be out indefinitely after sustaining an injury Saturday while vying for a historic win at a World Cup event in Killington, Vt.
Shiffrin, 29, was on the second run of the giant slalom competition when she lost control, tumbled to the snow, flipped and slid into the safety netting.
The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team on Sunday shared an update from Shiffrin via X that said no ligament damage was found and that her bones and internal organs “look OK.”
“Her return to snow is TBD and more information will be forthcoming,” the team said.
After the incident, Shiffrin posted a video to social media showing her with an abrasion on her left hip.
“Not really too much cause for concern at this point,” she said in the video. “I just can’t move. I have a pretty good abrasion. Something stabbed me … and so I just can’t move. I’m so sorry to scare everybody.”
Quick update. Thank you for your cheers and support. Wishing the best of luck to my teammates tomorrow!! I’ll be cheering from the sidelines on this one.🙏❤️ pic.twitter.com/5siYwSFxMT
— Mikaela Shiffrin ⛷️ (@MikaelaShiffrin) November 30, 2024
Earlier Saturday, Shiffrin had the fastest time in the first run of the giant slalom and was closing in on a victory when her ski caught and sent her tumbling. It would’ve been her 100th World Cup title.
The injury forced Shiffrin to miss Sunday’s slalom event — her best discipline, in which she’s won 62 of her 99 World Cup titles.
Mikaela Shiffrin is helped off the mountain after falling during the giant slalom at the World Cup event in Killington, Vt. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
Shiffrin, a three-time Olympic medalist, is already the all-time World Cup wins leader in alpine skiing. In March 2023, she passed Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark to move into first place with her 87th win, two months after surpassing fellow American star Lindsey Vonn’s mark of 82.
Shiffrin entered this season with 97 wins and picked up Nos. 98 and 99 in successive weeks in Europe last month, winning the slalom events in Levi, Finland, and Gurgl, Austria.
That set her up for a potential landmark 100th win on what is considered a home course for her. Shiffrin trained at Burke Mountain Academy, not far from Killington. She has won the slalom event there six times.
The next event on the women’s World Cup calendar — next weekend at Tremblant in Québec, Canada — was postponed due to poor snow conditions. The following weekend, Beaver Creek in Colorado — near Shiffrin’s hometown of Vail — hosts before the tour heads back to Europe.
Shiffrin won Olympic gold in the slalom in 2014 in Sochi, Russia, and in the giant slalom in 2018 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, where she also won a silver in the combined event. At the Beijing Games in 2022, she competed in six events but skied out in both slalom disciplines and did not medal in any of them.
Women’s alpine skiing at the 2026 Olympics is scheduled to begin Feb. 8, 2026, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy.
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(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)