CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, ITALY – JANUARY 25: Mikaela Shiffrin of Team United States during the inspection … [+]
American skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin was airlifted to a hospital after the 28-year-old suffered one of the scariest crashes of her career in Friday’s World Cup downhill race in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy.
Losing control while landing a jump, Shiffrin found herself careening into a patch of soft snow before colliding with the safety net at a considerable speed.
The alarming incident prompted an immediate response, with Shiffrin remaining down for approximately 10 minutes as medics attended to her.
In the aftermath, Shiffrin was airlifted to a local hospital, where she underwent evaluation for a potential left leg injury.
The U.S. Ski team, providing updates on X (formerly Twitter), shared that an initial analysis saying that the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) in her knee seemed intact.
Shiffrin later shared a photo from her hospital bed, expressing gratitude for the outpouring of support.
“At this point, I’m just taking it day by day, and I’ll share more information or updates as I know more. Very thankful it’s not worse, but I’m pretty sore at the moment,” she said in a post, along with a photo which showed her left leg strapped to a bag of ice.
“I won’t be skiing the rest of this weekend and I won’t be skiing (next week) in Kromplatz,” Shiffrin added. “Beyond that, it’s quite hard to say right now. Need a little time to process with my team and see how everything is feeling in the coming days!”
YANQING, CHINA – FEBRUARY 20: Mikaela Shiffrin of Team United States skis during the Mixed Team … [+]
Shiffrin, a seven-time world champion, had some high-profile crashes at the Beijing Olympics two years ago, when she didn’t finish three of her five individual races.
U.S. team coach Paul Kristofic told The Associated Press that Shiffrin “doesn’t fall often, but it can happen”.
“It just goes to show you how on the limit athletes push and how the courses push them. And they have to if they want to be competitive,” he added.
The crash on Friday came a few days after Shiffrin extended her record of World Cup wins to 95 and secured a landmark 150th podium of her career with a slalom victory in Jasna, Slovakia.
The course Shiffrin crashed on is the same one that will be used in the women’s downhill at Italy’s Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympics.
Mikaela Shiffrin Escapes Serious Injury In Crash In Italy – Forbes
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