Bronze, silver, or gold. Mikaela Shiffrin has never finished below the podium in a slalom at the worlds.

Mikaela Shiffrin is aiming a record-breaking 16th medal at the world championships in the slalom on Saturday.

Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States competes in a slalom run during a women’s team combined event at the Alpine Ski World Championships on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.
Gabriele Facciotti – AP

Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, right, poses for photographs with supporters during the medal ceremony after a women’s giant slalom at the Alpine Ski World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, on Thursday, February 13, 2025. (AP photo/Gabriele Facciotti)
Gabriele Facciotti – AP

Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States competes in a slalom run during a women’s team combined event at the Alpine Ski World Championships on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.
Gabriele Facciotti – AP

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) – Mikaela Shiffrin is no longer experiencing abdominal discomfort after a serious puncture wound almost penetrated her colon 2½ months ago.

The objective now is to return to peak form as the American pursues a record-breaking 16th medal at the world championships in the slalom on Saturday.

Shiffrin has only competed twice since being impaled by an unknown item after a giant slalom collision in Killington, Vermont, on November 30. She placed tenth in a World Cup slalom in Courchevel, France, last month, and won gold with Breezy Johnson in the new team combined event on Tuesday.

The collision severely injured Shiffrin’s oblique muscles, causing her insides to flow from the side of her belly.

“It still doesn’t hurt. And that’s the nice thing about muscles: when they mend, the discomfort goes away,” Shiffrin explained. “It’s not like ligaments and knees, which you have to deal with for a long time afterwards. The rest of my body hurts since I’m not used to skiing yet.”

Despite her lack of racing experience, Shiffrin was able to post the third-fastest slalom run in the combined, 0.39 seconds behind Swiss skier Wendy Holdener, who produced the quickest run and will face her on Saturday.

That was enough to give Shiffrin her 15th career world championship medal, tying the record established by German skier Christl Cranz in the 1930s. It was Shiffrin’s sixth gold medal in the greatest skiing event outside of the Olympics, with four coming in slalom.

Shiffrin has won medals in all six of her world championship slalom events, beginning in 2013 at the age of 17 with the first of four straight golds. Then she won bronze in 2021 and silver in 2023.

Shiffrin also won Olympic gold in slalom at the age of 18 at the 2014 Sochi Games, followed by gold in giant slalom and silver in combined in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

Shiffrin recently revealed her “PTSD-eque” anxieties following her incident, which led her to withdraw from defending her giant slalom championship on Thursday.

“We’re working through the mental stuff,” Shiffrin said following the combine.

Hirscher has more total championships but believes Shiffrin ‘the best of all time’.

Shiffrin’s world championship consistency is unparalleled, as she has won at least one gold medal in each of the seven competitions she has attended.

Her 99 World Cup victories and 62 in slalom are both male and female records.

One of the few major skiing statistics in which Shiffrin does not dominate is overall World Cup championships. Her five large crystal gloves placed her second in the women’s rankings, after Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s six.

However, Marcel Hirscher, the Austrian who owns the record for the most overall titles, has no doubts about Shiffrin’s place in skiing history.

“I remember Alberto Tomba, Hermann Maier, Bode Miller, Marcel Hirscher, and Marco Odermatt. “All of those are excellent names,” Hirscher stated. “But for me personally, I know Mika for such a long time and (with) everything she achieves, she’s just the greatest of all time because she won everything.”

And, as Hirscher pointed out, at 29, Shiffrin is still rather young for a skier.

“If she wants, she can ski for another five to six years,” Hirscher remarked. “So just, hats off.”

Without Vlhova, younger skiers like Ljutic and Rast may challenge Shiffrin.

Shiffrin’s main competitors in the slalom may be younger racers who have lately broken through, since long-time rival Petra Vlhova is currently out due to an ACL rupture in her right knee during a giant slalom in Slovakia last season.

Zrinka Ljutic, who recently turned 21, has won three of the last four World Cup slalom races.

Camille Rast won her maiden slalom at Killington the day after Shiffrin fell at the Vermont mountain. She then won again in the night slalom at Flachau, propelling her to the top of the World Cup slalom rankings.

Lara Colturi, who is only 18, has also reached the slalom podium this season.

If Shiffrin wins and gets her fifth gold in the same discipline, she would tie another record set by Cranz, who won five golds in total.