Mikaela Shiffrin is an Olympian and is considered to be the most successful alpine skier in history. When tackling the slopes, she has always given off an aura of confidence and fearlessness. However, after experiencing a horrific accident in November of 2024, Shiffrin was left with a puncture wound to the abdomen and was unsure if her self-confidence would ever be the same.
In a new interview with Players Tribune, the 30-year-old opened up about that accident and how it left her battling with severe PTSD.
“I didn’t fully comprehend what the mental side was gonna morph into,” she began.
At the time of the accident, Shiffrin was FIS World Cup in Killington, Vermont. She ended up losing control and fell, flipping over her skis and crashing into two gates. Her oblique muscle was severely damaged.
“I… most of the winter after the injury, and once we started skiing again and I was returning, it was mostly pretty awful. I did not feel like myself. I felt an insane disconnect between my body and my mind. We went through sort of a diagnosis, like a chart, basically. You kind of almost like check off these boxes, and you check off enough boxes, and it's like, this is… you do qualify for PTSD,” she explained.
The fact that Shiffrin knew how close her injury was to becoming life-threatening added to her fear of skiing again.
Nevertheless, Shiffrin explains that she has continued to work with a therapist while also pushing herself to keep skiing, even when it is difficult. While she recognizes that she has a new reality, she says she knows it’s just “for now.”
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