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BREAKING: Mikaela Shiffrin withdraws from World Championship giant slalom due to ‘PTSD’ from a nasty crash
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Mikaela Shiffrin has withdrawn from defending her giant slalom world title, citing “mental obstacles” and “PTSD” from a November crash.
Shiffrin was chasing her 100th World Cup win on home slopes in Vermont when she fell, colliding with two gates and sliding into the fence.
The 29-year-old skier sustained a puncture wound in her abdomen and had to take a two-month break from competition.
She returned to Courchevel with a 10th-place finish in the slalom on January 30th, hoping to add to her record tally of 16 gold medals at the World Championships in Austria.
However, despite plans to race the slalom on Saturday and the new team combined event at the Worlds on Tuesday, Shiffrin has been forced to withdraw from the longer technical event.
“I’m currently working through some mental obstacles in order to return to the GS start with the intensity required for racing,” Shiffrin wrote on her Facebook page. “To be honest, I didn’t expect to have such a mental/PTSD struggle in GS as a result of my injury in Killington.
“I tried to dive into the challenge, hoping to make it to Worlds. I figured my desire to compete would outweigh the mental barriers. Maybe that will happen in time, but I am not there yet.
“Coming to terms with how much fear I have doing an event that I loved so dearly only 2 months ago has been soul-crushing.”
Mikaela Shiffrin crashed in November
Shiffrin will team up with newly crowned downhill gold medallist Breezy Johnson in the team event, with the United States strong contenders for at least one medal.
Lindsey Vonn, who recently returned to high-level skiing after retirement, was initially paired with Shiffrin. However, the US coaches decided to pair the 40-year-old with AJ Hurt instead.
Vonn and Shiffrin are the most successful female World Cup skiers of all time, with 82 and 99 victories, respectively.
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