Mikaela Shiffrin reflects on her 100th World Cup victory in an in-depth interview

Mikaela Shiffrin questioned if she’d be able to compete again this season following a massive slalom collision on November 30, let alone return to the top of a World Cup podium so soon after winning her record-extending 100th career race last Sunday.

Shiffrin discussed the victory in an in-depth interview for a Stifel Snow Show episode that aired Saturday (available on the NBC Sports YouTube channel). The extended interview is at the top of this page.

“There’s so much more meaning to this one than a number or a record,” she told me. “I wouldn’t call it a relief. It’s almost surprising given what’s transpired in the previous several months. I honestly did not expect 100 to happen this season, so I am grateful.”

Shiffrin was remarkably injury-free for the first 12 years of her World Cup participation.

However, in 2024, she suffered two major crashes, including spraining her left leg ligaments in a downhill tumble in January. She missed 11 races last winter.

Then, following the November 30 collision, she was out of competition for two months. She had a penetrating wound that tore oblique muscles and almost punctured organs.

“It has been feeling very similar, to be honest, to this kind of mental fog that I had the year after my dad passed (in 2020),” she told me. “So communicating that, talking with my psychologist, talking with teammates, letting anybody and everybody kind of give me advice, and the main thing that everyone said is the only way to move through this is to get the exposure and to keep doing it (ski racing).”

Shiffrin’s upcoming events are a World Cup giant slalom and slalom in Åre, Sweden, next weekend.

She will turn 30 on March 13 before competing in the World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, from March 22 to 27.