America's biggest active skiing star lost control halfway through a World Cup run in Italy on Friday before crashing at a high speed into the safety nets. Mikaela Shiffrin limped away, leaning on her skis, and an ambulance took her to a hospital in Cortina d'Ampezzo to be checked for a leg injury, CNN reports. "Initial analysis shows the ACL and PCL seem intact," the US Ski & Snowboard Team later posted on X. Shiffrin responded with "Thank you all for your support," per CBS Sports, while congratulating her teammates for their performances.
The team's coach said Shiffrin remains upbeat. "She's positive and in a certain way relieved, because it could have been worse," Paul Kristofic told the AP. "But she's pretty sore, as you are for most speed crashes." Shiffrin lost it about 20 seconds into the run as she landed a jump in a patch of soft snow on the Olympia delle Tofane course, which will be used in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics. "It's tricky there," Kristofic said, adding that "she was carrying more speed than she did in the training run. And then she probably trimmed a little more line than she should have." That sent Shiffrin a bit too far to the left, he said, "where the terrain change is quite abrupt."
Shiffrin is out for the weekend, and it's not clear when she'll be able to resume competition. Stephanie Venier of Austria won Friday's downhill, per the BBC, her second World Cup victory. Shiffrin, 28, won a record 95th women's World Cup slalom victory on Sunday, per the AP. "She doesn't fall often," Kristofic said. "But it can happen." (Shiffrin is the most successful female skier in history.)
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