KILLINGTON, United States: American skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin suffered a puncture wound and “severe muscle trauma” in a giant slalom crash that derailed her bid for a 100th World Cup win, U. S. Alpine Ski Team said on Sunday.
“He has a puncture wound to the right side of his abdomen and severe muscle trauma,” Courtney Harkins, director of communications for US Ski & Snowboard, said in a statement. “He didn’t get stitches. They can’t stitch the puncture wound because it’s too deep and there’s a risk of infection.
“She’s pretty sore,” added Harkins, who said Shiffrin “can’t walk very well right now” and had no timetable for her return to competition. Shiffrin was leading the giant slalom at Killington on Saturday when she hit a gate on the final section of the course and crashed before sliding into the catch fencing.
Harkins said Shiffrin was asked to be taken off the course on a sled because she was “in shock, completely unable to move, and suffering from internal organ trauma.” However, the scans showed that “the bones and internal organs looked fine” and no ligaments were damaged.
The 29-year-old skier posted a video from his clinic bed on Saturday afternoon on X, previously on Twitter, saying there was “really not much cause for concern” after the accident. But pointing to a scratch on his front left stomach, he said “something stabbed me”.
After back-to-back slalom wins in Finland and Austria this season, Shiffrin looks poised to claim her once-unthinkable century in Killington, where she attended Brick Mountain Academy as a teenager. was
A two-time Olympic champion and five-time World Cup overall champion, she already has 13 more World Cup wins than the most successful man, Ingemar Steinmark — who will surpass her record of 86 in 2023. . She has 17 more than the second woman, compatriot Lindsay Vonn.