Six weeks ago, Mikaela Shiffrin, a renowned ski racer, suffered a severe injury during a giant slalom race. A mysterious object punctured her side, causing damage to her oblique muscles. This injury forced her to take a break from the sport, and her return to the World Cup circuit was uncertain. However, through rigorous physical therapy and a dedicated rehabilitation process, Shiffrin has made a remarkable recovery and is set to compete in Courchevel, France, on January 30th.
Six weeks ago, Mikaela Shiffrin didn't have the core strength to rise out of a chair. A sneeze or a laugh brought on instant pain. In a giant slalom race Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont where something punctured her in the side -- what it was is still a mystery -- and caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles. It has been a demanding and difficult road back for the fast-healing Shiffrin, who plans to make her World Cup return at a slalom race in Courchevel, France, on Thursday, Jan. 30.
Her journey to the start gate included preventive surgery to ward off an infection inside a wound that penetrated through three layers of muscle and hours of arduous rehab to reactivate those crucial core muscles on her way to feeling comfortable again weaving through a course. That's why Shiffrin's focus is solely on progression, not so much her pursuit of World Cup win No. 100. Given where she was, just to make it back this quickly from an injury that's not exactly common for a ski racer and resulted in her physical therapist consulting with baseball and hockey teams, that is already a big win. 'It's going to be a little bit nerve-wracking, to be honest,' 29-year-old Shiffrin told The Associated Press.'These past six weeks, every step it's like, 'Geez, should this be hurting less? Should I be better at this? Should I be more tolerant of the pain?' There are so many questions that come up in your mind of basically whether or not you're doing well enough.Shiffrin has repeatedly watched the crash. She has analyzed precisely what happened in a race where she was leading and looked headed toward milestone win No. 100.'I was like, 'I'll be hanging on for dear life, but it's going to be fast,'' said Shiffrin, whose plans for the world championships in Austria next month include racing the slalom and giant slalom. Shiffrin hit the snow, smashed into the gate, toppled over her skis and slid into the protective fence. She suffered no serious bone or ligament damage, but something impaled her. She has scrutinized what happened trying to figure out what the object might have been, with theories ranging from her ski pole to a piece of the gate. Fans have even reached out to offer their thoughts. Only later did she find out just how close of a call it was: Whatever stabbed her nearly punctured her abdominal wall and colon. 'A millimeter from pretty catastrophic,' Shiffrin said.'Then it was like, 'Your colon is intact. This is just a hole in your side. That's fine.' I'm like, 'But there's still a hole in my side and I can't move.''This was such a unique injury for ski racing. Her physical therapist, Regan Dewhirst, reached out to the training staffs of the for advice, since baseball and hockey players have had their share of oblique ailments. Each helped provide a framework for Shiffrin's recovery. 'The biggest thing was to make sure you get her moving in a pain-free way as quickly as possible,' Dewhirst said.'Get the muscle activated properly, and then once it's activating, you need to try to introduce these sport-specific motions as soon as you can.' They took the necessary steps at Shiffrin's pace. If she felt good, they were aggressive. If she needed to rest, they rested. She was looking at a 6-to-12-week timeline for a return, but no one knew for sure. 'Every step of the way, it's gone as well as we could hope,' said Shiffrin, who is engaged to Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, a Norwegian ski star sidelined this season with an injury.'We've been pushing too.' Shiffrin returned to skiing Jan. 1. A few simple runs to'get at those ski-specific motions you really can't simulate in a controlled gym space,' Dewhirst said.'Just slowly taking on the progression and not throwing in too much into the fire at once,' said Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic champion who has a'new' teammate on the U.S. ski team with the comeback of Lindsey Vonn.'It's kind of hard to explain to people just how much you put your body through just to make one single slalom or GS turn, let alone 55 to 60 in a row.' Earlier this week, she had a little hiccup that sent her heart racing. She hit a pile of snow in a training run, one ski slid into the other, and she nearly fell.'That was scary,' Shiffrin said.'But I was also like, 'There it is.' I have to desensitize to those little things again because you don't ski a full-length race course without some little moments of like, 'That was kind of scary.'''If for whatever reason something crops up and it's not quite there yet, no big deal,' Dewhirst said.'This is an evolving continuum.' Shiffrin won't be racing any downhill events this season but is leaving the door open for an occasional super-G. 'It depends on how much we can fit into a really short time crunch,' Shiffrin said.'For me, it's just been put your head down and do the work and just do this as well as you can.
Mikaela Shiffrin Skiing World Cup Injury Comeback Rehabilitation Slalom
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