Latest news with #100thWorldCup
CNN
27-02-2025
- Sport
- CNN
Mikaela Shiffrin battled with a ‘mind-body disconnect' before winning historic 100th World Cup race
It's perhaps an understatement when Mikaela Shiffrin says that she has been on 'quite a journey' this season. That doesn't do justice to the mental and physical obstacles she has had to overcome in order to reach a landmark 100th World Cup win, a feat she finally achieved in the Italian resort of Sestriere on Sunday. To begin to understand the months-long ordeal the American skier has had to endure in the build-up to that history-making victory, you first have to go back to November 30 when Shiffrin crashed out of a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. Physically, the impact of that crash was brutal: Severe muscle trauma and a seven-centimeter-deep (about 2.76 inches) puncture wound to the abdomen which Shiffrin said nearly pushed into her colon. 'It's been such a constant grind to get my muscles back to a functioning place,' she told CNN Sport. 'In the context of ski racing, the obliques, internal and external, are some of the most important muscles that we have. Besides our legs, it's some of the most important parts of the body. … It's been a really, really big, very steep uphill battle just to get back to skiing.' Shiffrin returned to competition two months after the crash and placed 10th in the slalom event in Courchevel, rekindling her pursuit of a 100th career win. A women's team combined gold medal alongside Breezy Johnson at the world championships followed, but mental scars from the November crash still lingered. The issues were compounded by two crashes she had experienced around the same time, which included hitting her head and having to go through the concussion protocol. It was against this backdrop that Shiffrin, prior to the team event, announced that she was withdrawing from the giant slalom at the world championships due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 'When we got over here (Europe) and I started to really get into the intensity with giant slalom, there's this kind of mind-body disconnect,' says Shiffrin. 'I'm telling myself to do certain technical moves and it's just not happening. 'My body's screaming at me, it's like a fight or flight: 'No, don't do it, it's risky, it's dangerous.' … This whole journey has felt a little bit like whiplash, I think, for me and for the whole team.' That was just a snapshot of some of the intrusive thoughts that hampered the 29-year-old during her comeback. According to Shiffrin, she also struggled with the lasting effects of another crash in Italy at the start of last year, as well as her father's sudden death from an accident at home four years ago. 'It's been quite a road the last year, for sure,' she says, 'but especially the last few weeks. It all kind of came bubbling to the surface and yeah – no shortage of tears on Sunday, that's for sure.' Shiffrin finished 0.61 seconds ahead of the field as she claimed the 100th World Cup win of her career in Sestriere – 14 more than the next-best downhill skier, Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, and 18 more than the next woman on the all-time list, compatriot Lindsey Vonn. With her win in Italy, the two-time Olympic champion also made another piece of history in equaling Stenmark's record of 155 podium finishes at World Cup events. And the bad news for her rivals is that she's not done yet, especially as she remains determined to overcome her demons in the giant slalom. At this stage, it's more about discovering her own potential after recovering from the crash, rather than chasing any tangible results or milestones. 'Can I get back to a level in giant slalom that's competitive with the top racers?' says Shiffrin. 'For me, that's really overwhelming and a little bit stressful to think about, but it's also kind of exciting. 'There's this feeling of 100 almost being like resetting to zero, this idea of resetting the sport. I feel like I'm resetting myself a little bit, and I'm hoping to, I guess, ride that wave and see where it goes.' The 100th win has also given Shiffrin the chance to give back to the sport that means so much to her. Teaming up with the Share Winter Foundation, she wants to raise $100,000 to fund 800 days on the snow for young people who might otherwise not get to experience time in the mountains. She has agreed to match each donation for the first $10,000, committing to a cause which she said is 'far bigger' than winning 100 races in her skiing career. 'I'm talking about the PTSD and the mental challenges of ski racing, but being on the mountain is healing,' says Shiffrin. 'It's mentally so healing, it's such a beautiful thing, and there are so many people, I think, that would benefit from it.' Healing, both mental and physical, has been a key part of Shiffrin's season to date. As she takes the next steps in her career – wounds mending and that 100th win now secured – it feels like the sky is truly the limit for one of the world's greatest ever skiers.
CNN
26-02-2025
- Sport
- CNN
Mikaela Shiffrin battled with a ‘mind-body disconnect' before winning historic 100th World Cup race
It's perhaps an understatement when Mikaela Shiffrin says that she has been on 'quite a journey' this season. That doesn't do justice to the mental and physical obstacles she has had to overcome in order to reach a landmark 100th World Cup win, a feat she finally achieved in the Italian resort of Sestriere on Sunday. To begin to understand the months-long ordeal the American skier has had to endure in the build-up to that history-making victory, you first have to go back to November 30 when Shiffrin crashed out of a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. Physically, the impact of that crash was brutal: Severe muscle trauma and a seven-centimeter-deep (about 2.76 inches) puncture wound to the abdomen which Shiffrin said nearly pushed into her colon. 'It's been such a constant grind to get my muscles back to a functioning place,' she told CNN Sport. 'In the context of ski racing, the obliques, internal and external, are some of the most important muscles that we have. Besides our legs, it's some of the most important parts of the body. … It's been a really, really big, very steep uphill battle just to get back to skiing.' Shiffrin returned to competition two months after the crash and placed 10th in the slalom event in Courchevel, rekindling her pursuit of a 100th career win. A women's team combined gold medal alongside Breezy Johnson at the world championships followed, but mental scars from the November crash still lingered. The issues were compounded by two crashes she had experienced around the same time, which included hitting her head and having to go through the concussion protocol. It was against this backdrop that Shiffrin, prior to the team event, announced that she was withdrawing from the giant slalom at the world championships due to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 'When we got over here (Europe) and I started to really get into the intensity with giant slalom, there's this kind of mind-body disconnect,' says Shiffrin. 'I'm telling myself to do certain technical moves and it's just not happening. 'My body's screaming at me, it's like a fight or flight: 'No, don't do it, it's risky, it's dangerous.' … This whole journey has felt a little bit like whiplash, I think, for me and for the whole team.' That was just a snapshot of some of the intrusive thoughts that hampered the 29-year-old during her comeback. According to Shiffrin, she also struggled with the lasting effects of another crash in Italy at the start of last year, as well as her father's sudden death from an accident at home four years ago. 'It's been quite a road the last year, for sure,' she says, 'but especially the last few weeks. It all kind of came bubbling to the surface and yeah – no shortage of tears on Sunday, that's for sure.' Shiffrin finished 0.61 seconds ahead of the field as she claimed the 100th World Cup win of her career in Sestriere – 14 more than the next-best downhill skier, Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark, and 18 more than the next woman on the all-time list, compatriot Lindsey Vonn. With her win in Italy, the two-time Olympic champion also made another piece of history in equaling Stenmark's record of 155 podium finishes at World Cup events. And the bad news for her rivals is that she's not done yet, especially as she remains determined to overcome her demons in the giant slalom. At this stage, it's more about discovering her own potential after recovering from the crash, rather than chasing any tangible results or milestones. 'Can I get back to a level in giant slalom that's competitive with the top racers?' says Shiffrin. 'For me, that's really overwhelming and a little bit stressful to think about, but it's also kind of exciting. 'There's this feeling of 100 almost being like resetting to zero, this idea of resetting the sport. I feel like I'm resetting myself a little bit, and I'm hoping to, I guess, ride that wave and see where it goes.' The 100th win has also given Shiffrin the chance to give back to the sport that means so much to her. Teaming up with the Share Winter Foundation, she wants to raise $100,000 to fund 800 days on the snow for young people who might otherwise not get to experience time in the mountains. She has agreed to match each donation for the first $10,000, committing to a cause which she said is 'far bigger' than winning 100 races in her skiing career. 'I'm talking about the PTSD and the mental challenges of ski racing, but being on the mountain is healing,' says Shiffrin. 'It's mentally so healing, it's such a beautiful thing, and there are so many people, I think, that would benefit from it.' Healing, both mental and physical, has been a key part of Shiffrin's season to date. As she takes the next steps in her career – wounds mending and that 100th win now secured – it feels like the sky is truly the limit for one of the world's greatest ever skiers.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Mikaela Shiffrin says she overcame fear to earn 100th World Cup victory
Mikaela Shiffrin says winning her 100th World Cup race has helped her cope with fear after a recent stressful and traumatic injury. "I'm going to be honest with you. I didn't really see myself achieving this milestone this year either," Shiffrin said Tuesday on "Good Morning America" in a live interview. "So, it's pretty overwhelming." Shiffrin, 29, took home her 100th World Cup victory in the slalom in Sestriere, Italy, on Feb. 23. Her victory came less than three months after she crashed during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, where she was also going for her 100th World Cup win. Simone Biles tweets support to Mikaela Shiffrin after she exits 2nd Olympics event Shiffrin sustained a deep puncture to her abdomen during the Nov. 30, crash, which also tore her oblique muscle, according to ESPN. The injuries required Shiffrin to undergo surgery and endure a weeks-long recovery at home in Colorado. Shiffrin told "GMA" that the injuries also left her with mental obstacles that she's working to overcome in her recovery. "Honestly, I've been struggling with this sort of, like, this kind of PTSD -- I guess you can call it fear, but it's not this sort of like cognitive awareness of fear. It's like my body is aware of the risk," she said. "When my mind says, 'Go,' my body won't. And that on top of everything else, and trying to get the training and the repetition and just to prepare for racing, has been, like I said, overwhelming." Shiffrin added that her 100th World Cup victory is one she hopes will not just be another record for her, but a motivation to continue racing and to have fun. 1-on-1 with Mikaela Shiffrin "The 100th victory was in a slalom and that's always come a little bit more naturally to me," she said. "And I'm hoping that having this exposure to racing in slalom ... is going to help me kind of build up the, I don't know, the fun, and the the ability to take on that risk again and hopefully enjoy it." In honor of her 100th victory, Shiffrin is working with the Share Winter Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to give more young people access to winter sports, to raise $100,000 for ski and snowboard programs. "Ski racing is a niche sort of sport, and there's a lot of people out there, there's a lot of youth, that [are] really denied access to it," she said, adding, "This collaboration is to raise $100,000 for Shared Winter to help in this goal, this dream of sharing winter with more people and more youth that would be denied access otherwise." The Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News and ESPN. Mikaela Shiffrin says she overcame fear to earn 100th World Cup victory originally appeared on
Reuters
15-02-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Shiffrin in hunt for record 16th world championship medal
SAALBACH, Austria, Feb 15 (Reuters) - American Mikaela Shiffrin was in the hunt for a record 16th Alpine Skiing World Championships medal on Saturday after going third fastest in the first run of the final women's slalom led by Switzerland's Camille Rast. Shiffrin took her record-equalling 15th medal when she and downhill champion Breezy Johnson won the new women's team combined event on Tuesday. The most successful skier has yet to finish off the podium in her six previous world championship slaloms, winning four golds in a row between 2013-19, silver in 2023 and bronze in 2021. German skier Christl Cranz won 15 individual medals, a feat Shiffrin can equal, between 1934-39 when the championships were held annually. Rast set a time of 58.91 seconds in Saalbach with Austria's Katharina Liensberger, the 2021 champion, 0.58 slower on home snow. Shiffrin was 0.72 off the pace and Switzerland's Wendy Holdener fourth, 0.80 behind Rast. American Paula Moltzan was in fifth place but 1.55 off. "I feel pretty good about it," said Shiffrin of her run. "The hill is quite long, it's a good challenging hill. It keeps coming at you and the course-setting was great. "It was a big challenge to keep up with the pace and for me especially on the end of the course it's like 15 seconds longer than anything I've skied since before Killington so I don't have very much in my legs left. "I think this was some of the best skiing I've done lately." Shiffrin suffered a puncture wound in her left abdomen when she crashed in a giant slalom in Killington, Vermont, last November while chasing a record-extending 100th World Cup victory.
The Independent
10-02-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Mikaela Shiffrin pulls out of World Championships giant slalom due to ‘PTSD' from nasty crash
Mikaela Shiffrin has withdrawn from the defence of her giant slalom world title with the American skier still dealing with the 'mental obstacles' and 'PTSD' caused by a nasty crash in November. Shiffrin had been chasing a 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 avoided severe broken bones but suffered a puncture wound in her abdomen, and spent two months away from competitive skiing. She made her return in Courchevel with a 10th-placed finish in the slalom on 30 January with hope of adding to her record tally of 16 gold medals at the World Championships in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. But while still intending to race the slalom on Saturday and the new team combined event at the Worlds on Tuesday, Shiffrin has been forced to pull out of 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 said on Instagram. "Honestly, I really didn't anticipate experiencing so much of this kind of mental/PTSD struggle in GS from my injury in Killington. "I tried diving into the challenge, hoping to get there by Worlds. I figured my passion and longing to compete would outweigh the mental barriers. Maybe that will be the case over time, but I'm 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." Shiffrin will combine with newly-crowned downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson in the team combined, with the United States strong contenders to secure at least one medal. Veteran Lindsey Vonn had campaigned to partner Shiffrin after making a remarkable return to high-level ski racing after coming out of retirement, but the US coaches have elected to instead pair the 40-year-old with AJ Hurt. Vonn and Shiffrin are the two most successful female World Cup skiers of all time, with 82 and 99 wins respectively.
