KILLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin said she suffered an abrasion on her left hip and that something “stabbed” her when she crashed during her second run of a World Cup giant slalom race Saturday, flipped and slid into the protective fencing.
Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd before going to a clinic for evaluation.
“Not really too much cause for concern at this point, I just can’t move,” she said later in a video posted on social media. “I have a pretty good abrasion and something stabbed me. ... I’m so sorry to scare everybody. It looks like all scans so far are clear.”
She plans to skip Sunday's slalom. She wrote on Instagram she will be “cheering from the sideline.”
The 29-year-old was leading after the first run of the GS and charging for her 100th World Cup win. She was within sight of the finish line, five gates onto Killington’s steep finish pitch, when she an outside edge. She hit a gate and did a somersault before sliding into another gate. The fencing slowed her momentum as she came to an abrupt stop.
Reigning Olympic GS champion Sara Hector of Sweden won in a combined time of one minute, 53.08 seconds. Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia was second and Swiss racer Camille Rast took third. Valerie Grenier of St-Isodore, Ont., was the top Canadian in a tie for ninth.
Meanwhile, a pair of women's World Cup giant slaloms Dec. 7-8 in Mont-Tremblant, Que., were called off because of lack of snow. Killington got over 50 centimetres of snow Thursday, but that precipiation did not reach the ski resort northwest of Montreal.
Temperatures have not been cold enough to manufacture snow there, said FIS race director Peter Gerdol in a statement.
“I know this is disappointing news for everyone involved,” Alpine Canada president and CEO Therese Brisson said Saturday in a statement.
"The local organizing committee, the Tremblant staff and volunteers who were extra-ordinarily well-prepared and did everything they could, our event partners, the fans who were excited to see the best women ski racers in the world, and the athletes who loved racing here, especially our Canadian athletes who were so looking forward to racing on home snow."
The races are scheduled to return to Mont-Tremblant in 2025.
Shiffrin's crash was a surprise for everyone. Shiffrin rarely DNFs — ski racing parlance for “did not finish.” In 274 World Cup starts, she DNF'd only 18 times. The last time she DNF'd in GS was January 2018.
“It’s just so sad, of course, to see Mikaela crash like that and skiing so well,” Hector said on the broadcast after her win. “It breaks my heart and everybody else here.”
Shiffrin also has not suffered any devastating injuries. In her 14-year career, she has rehabbed only two on-hill injuries: a torn medial collateral ligament and bone bruising in her right knee in December 2015 and a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee after a downhill crash in January 2024. Neither knee injury required surgery, and both times, Shiffrin was back to racing within two months.
Saturday was shaping up to be a banner day for Shiffrin, who skied flawlessly in the first run and held a 0.32-second lead as she chased after her 100th World Cup win. Shiffrin, who grew up in both New Hampshire and Colorado and sharpened her skills at nearby Burke Mountain Academy, has long been a fan favourite.
Shiffrin is driven not so much by wins but by arcing the perfect run. She has shattered so many records along the way. She passed Lindsey Vonn’s women’s mark of 82 World Cup victories Jan. 24, 2023, during a giant slalom in Kronplatz, Italy.
That March, Shiffrin broke Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s Alpine mark for most World Cup wins when she captured her 87th career race.
To date, she has earned five overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals — along with a silver — and seven world championships.
AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.
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Peggy Shinn, The Associated Press
