SUN VALLEY, Idaho — Mikaela Shiffrin is finding peace on the slopes. Her recurring flashbacks to a painful crash during a giant slalom (GS) race last November are gradually diminishing with each training session.
For the accomplished skier, this marks substantial headway as she grapples with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from that incident. During the World Cup finals in Sun Valley, while her competitors take to the GS track on Tuesday, Shiffrin will focus on honing her skills in slalom – her sole event of the special weeklong finals, given her non-qualification in the GS.
The renowned two-time Olympic gold medalist recently disclosed her ongoing struggle with PTSD after a fall on November 30 in Killington, Vermont. During that crash, an unknown object punctured her side, causing severe injury to her oblique muscles. Since the crash, she skipped the GS at the world championships but has bravely raced the event three times, achieving 25th place as her best result. However, Shiffrin remains dedicated to reclaiming her speed with strong performances during GS practice, a demanding discipline that demands both speed and technical prowess.
“Training is going well. It’s actually super positive. Training has been improving day-by-day,” said Shiffrin in a recent interview, prior to signing autographs for her devoted fans. “I’m just trying to get back to the confidence that I was skiing with in Killington when the crash happened. That would be a big goal.”
During the tragic event, Shiffrin was leading after the first GS run. She was in pursuit of her 100th World Cup victory when the finish line slipped away after she lost an edge, crashing into the gates. As she tumbled, she turned over her skis and collided with another gate, finally stopping amidst protective fencing. She is still uncertain about what caused the puncture wound.
In a determined bid to mentally prepare for GS challenges, she has been actively working with a psychologist. Prior to the world championships, her PTSD symptoms were pronounced. However, a few weeks later in Are, Sweden, she noticed a decrease.
“My processing speed and the mind-body connection has come back in a great way,” expressed Shiffrin, who recently celebrated her 100th World Cup win in Italy. “But every now and then I’ll still have the sort of intrusive images or thoughts cross my mind of crashing or the pain. Normally, it’s in the start gate. If I’m starting to get a little bit tired in a session, I just imagine everything that could go wrong and it’s kind of an intense reaction.
“But it happens so much less often now. It does feel very true that simply exposure to doing the thing that’s pretty uncomfortable is helpful.”
Following her slalom practice on Tuesday, Shiffrin plans to watch closely as New Zealand’s Alice Robinson vies to keep her lead against Italy’s Federica Brignone for the GS crystal globe.
The 30-year-old skier recognized glimpses of her former skills in GS, which brought her an Olympic gold in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and accounts for 22 of her World Cup victories.
“Some of my turns are competitive with the fastest in the world,” noted Shiffrin, anticipating her slalom race on Thursday. “But putting that together for a minute and 10-second GS run — that just takes time and repetition. We’ll need to try to get some days this summer with long course sets, with a lot of variation of course sets, variation of conditions. I don’t doubt that I can get to that competitive level again.
“I think a lot of my skiing is already there.”