Mikaela Shiffrin’s ‘weird mentality’ after winning combined gold in Saalbach 2025, admits to ‘mental beatdown’
Published 11/02/2025 at 21:44 GMT
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Mikaela Shiffrin experienced a rollercoaster of emotions at the World Championship, as she claimed a stunning record-equalling gold medal in the combined event alongside Breezy Johnson. It felt like a rare high moment in a hugely challenging past three months for the 29-year-old, who is still in the process of recovering from a horrendous injury suffered in Killington last November.
Shiffrin: Kombi-Gold "ein besonderer Moment nach harten Monaten"
Video credit: TNT Sports
Mikaela Shiffrin appeared to be just as surprised as anyone after claiming a record-equalling 15th World Championship medal in the combined event with Breezy Johnson.
Shiffrin has endured a topsy-turvy time in Saalbach, with this unexpected victory coming just a day after withdrawing from the giant slalom event.
The eight-time gold medal winner has had to overcome a wound to her abdomen and severe muscle trauma to get to this point on an incredibly challenging road to recovery.
She told Eurosport: "It was a brilliant day and a little bit unexpected in some ways, which the people around outside may not understand, but there have been some challenging weeks and months.
"Coming out today with Breezy and to be able to earn this gold together was a really special and amazing way to start this for me.
"People were talking about this record back at Courchevel-Meribel. So, of course, I was aware that there was another record, but I felt so far away from the chance to accomplish anything with medals this world championships.
"It's very strange to be an athlete coming into a world championship, and I'm still recovering. Everyone is fighting for medals, and I'm coming in with the mentality where I don't know if I'm good enough to be here right how. It's such a weird mentality."
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Shiffrin, Johnson celebrate combined gold after Moltzan misses out on podium
Video credit: TNT Sports
The 29-year-old gave an insight into what has been a gruelling and brutal path back to competition skiing, and admits she is not yet at the required level to challenge for medals in the giant slalom discipline.
She continued: "It's been such a strange injury, and it's not what people expect. You see a knee injury or broken bones, and people can see that a neck or a back injury is serious.
"Everybody sees that as a serious injury and I don't think anybody knew what was going on with mine. We were understanding more as we went along. For the first three weeks, if I sat straight, I would just fall over.
"This muscle was not connecting, so I then had to work on basic movements, basic walking, and to not be like this [arched over] all the time. The pain was the most I've ever experienced with anything. I was asking myself: ‘What is this weird, stupid puncture wound? How did that happen?’ It's been a lot of work to get to here and get back to the start gate."
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'Pretty crazy' - Shiffrin, Johnson thrilled with 'amazing' combined gold medal
Video credit: TNT Sports
The record World Cup race winner stressed that she needs time to make a return to giant slalom competition, and more practice time is required before returning to that discipline.
"We've just been trying to make this return so quickly, and by the book, it's too quick to return to racing. But we're doing everything to take care of the details.
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"Physically, I'm strong enough, and I don't have pain now, but it's about having the time on snow and the ability to train in different conditions, course settings, and to take on the speed of a racecourse.
"I need to mentally be able to process this speed. I just can't do the movements that you need to do to do a fast GS turn. By the end of the session, I'm crying and I don't understand why. It's this mental beatdown and we just have to take a breath and keep going step by step. I think it will come, but it doesn't come when you rush it."
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