Mikaela Shiffrin returns to giant slalom for first time since injury, finishes 25th

New York Times

21-02-2025

American Alpine skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin finished 25th in her first World Cup giant slalom race since November, the latest step back in her recovery from an injury that kept her off the slopes for two months.
With a combined time of 2:12.69, Federica Brignone fought off an illness to win the race Friday in front of her home-country fans in Sestriere, Italy, coming back from second position after the first run to top New Zealand's Alice Robinson by 0.40 seconds. Brignone and Robinson also finished 1-2 in the giant slalom at last week's world championships. Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesun took third, 1.57 back.
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It was the 33rd career World Cup win and 15th in giant slalom for Brignone, who leads the overall World Cup standings and has six wins this season. She won silver in giant slalom at the 2022 Olympics.
American Paula Moltzan, the bronze-medal winner at worlds, was in third after the first run and was flying down the second before a big slip in the course's final section cost her a podium spot. She finished sixth.
Nina O'Brien (eighth) and A.J. Hurt (12th) also finished in the top 15 for the Americans.
Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time world champion, was 18th after the first run, 2.89 seconds back of the leader Robinson, finishing in 1:08.93. She completed the second run in 1:08.41, the second-slowest time of the 28 skiers who made it to the finish line. Overall, she was 4.65 seconds off Brignone's pace.
Just being back in the field for this event was a notable moment for Shiffrin. Eleven days ago, she announced that she would skip the giant slalom at the world championships, citing 'mental obstacles' as she continued her recovery from a crash in the same event in Killington, Vt., on Nov. 30. She acknowledged Thursday she's still not fully past it but said she felt well enough to compete in Sestriere.
'I do not yet feel entirely myself,' she wrote on social media, '…but I do feel enough of myself to be here…and for now, that is enough.'
After withdrawing from the giant slalom at worlds, Shiffrin entered the team combined event instead, finishing third in the slalom leg to win the gold medal with U.S. teammate Breezy Johnson. She also competed in her signature event, the slalom, finishing fifth — 0.05 seconds from a record-breaking medal.
Friday's race in Sestriere, where Shiffrin won the slalom competition in December 2016, was her first giant slalom since that day in Killington, when she was vying for her 100th career World Cup win on a familiar hill, not far from where she once trained at Burke Mountain Academy. But the crash in the second run there left her with a puncture wound in her abdomen that kept her out of competition until late January.
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She returned on Jan. 30, finishing 10th in a slalom race in Courchevel, France, before heading to worlds.
Before the injury, Shiffrin, 29, was off to a soaring start to the season. She won the first two slalom events — in Levi, Finland, and Gurgl, Austria — in November to reach 99 World Cup wins and make a celebration on home soil seem inevitable.
Then, in Killington, she posted the top time in the first run of the giant slalom, looking poised to hit the 100 mark — never before achieved in Alpine skiing — before she lost control during the second run, fell to the snow, flipped and slid into the safety netting. She missed the next day's slalom race before announcing an extended absence.
As Shiffrin returned and pursued history on the World Cup tour and at world championships, where she is now tied for the all-time lead in medals won, she has cautioned that returning to top form will be a process.
'It's eight weeks since I had surgery,' she said after the world championship slalom. 'It's six weeks since I was laying in bed with a drainage tube sticking out of me. So, it's like, perspective is important. … It takes time.'
Friday's giant slalom replaced a December event at Tremblant in Quebec, Canada, that was canceled due to unsuitable weather conditions. The originally scheduled Sestriere giant slalom race is set for Saturday, with a slalom race on Sunday.
After this weekend, there are two slalom weekends left on the World Cup calendar for the women — in Are, Sweden, March 8-9 and in Sun Valley, Idaho, at the World Cup Finals, March 22-27.
(Photo of Mikaela Shiffrin during Thursday's giant slalom: Marco Bertorello / AFP via Getty Images)