Mikaela Shiffrin To Miss Upcoming World Cup Races Due to Illness

Throughout a long season, every athlete regardless of which sports discipline they compete in will eventually face challenges. Whether it is injuries, setbacks, or illness, athletes must deal with the unforeseen obstacles they will face during the season. Mikaela Shiffrin is not immune to injuries or setbacks and this time she has been dealing with a cold that forced her to not compete in Kranjska Gora events in Slovenia.

“Unfortunately I have not yet fully recovered from a cold of the last few days and we therefore decided with the team to skip Zauchensee to recharge our batteries,” said Shirffrin in an ORF report. ORF is the leading multimedia platform in Austria and one of Europe’s most successful public service broadcasters with an audience of millions.

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This will undoubtedly make the race for the World Cup more competitive and give other female alpine racers the chance to close the point gap with Shiffrin. Currently, Shiffin has a 207-point lead over Petra Vlhova, but other racers like Sofia Goggia, Lara Gut-Behrami, and Federica Brignone will also have a chance to pull closer to Shiffrin as well.

Shiffrin hopes and plans to return to the slopes in Flachau, Austria to compete in the slalom race on January, 16. There will be a total of 22 races left on the Women’s 2023/24 Alpine FIS World Cup remaining when Shiffrin hopefully returns from being ill. Those remaining races will all be held in Europe covering 11 different venues with the finals being held at Saalbach, Austria on March 16 and 17 for the GS and SL events and March 22 and 23 for the DH and SG events.