Shiffrin pulls out of World Championships giant slalom due to ‘soul-crushing’ fear
Updated 10/02/2025 at 09:24 GMT
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Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin has opted to skip the giant slalom at this week's Alpine Ski World Championships to focus on other events, citing the "mental barriers" that have held her back since a traumatic injury late last year. The American sustained a puncture wound to her abdomen and severe muscle trauma in a crash on a run in Killington in November, only recently returning to competition.
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Mikaela Shiffrin will miss the giant slalom event at the Alpine Ski World Championships this week as she continues to face "mental obstacles" in the discipline after a serious injury.
The American, one of the all-time greats in Alpine skiing, only returned to competition a week ago after two months out of action, finishing 10th in the slalom in Courchevel, France.
She suffered a puncture wound to her abdomen and severe muscle trauma in a crash in Killington, Vermont in November, when racing in the second run of the giant slalom event.
The 29-year-old later required surgery, and she explained on social media that while she has healed well physically, she is "quite far away" from being able to compete in GS.
Shiffrin wrote on Instagram: "I’ve poured all of my energy into getting my giant slalom in shape to be prepared to start World Champs GS in Saalbach on Thursday.
"The long-story-short is… I’m not there. Right now, I feel quite far away. I’m currently working through some mental obstacles in order to return to the GS start with the intensity required for racing.
"Honestly, I really didn’t anticipate experiencing so much of this kind of mental/PTSD struggle in GS from my injury in Killington.
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"Like always, I tried diving into the challenge, hoping to get there by Worlds. I figured my passion and longing to compete would outweigh the mental barriers.
"Maybe that will be the case over time, but I’m not there yet. Coming to terms with how much fear I have doing an event that I loved so dearly only 2 months ago has been soul-crushing.
"One of my team-mates - who knows this experience well - said that the only thing you can do is keep trying. So that’s what I will do."
Shiffrin will instead race in Tuesday's team combined event, where she has been paired with new downhill world champion Breezy Johnson, who she has known and raced with since the age of 11.
She paid tribute to Johnson, saying she "has inspired the heck out of me", in a second Instagram post detailing her decision.
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That event will be Shiffrin's first at this year's World Championships, held in Saalbach, Austria.
She holds the all-time record for World Cup wins and her bid to reach a landmark century was disrupted by the crash in Killington.
She began the season with 97 wins and, after back-to-back slalom victories in Finland and Austria before the injury, is now just one away from an historic achievement.
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