U.S. ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin shared on her social media channels that she will only compete in one discipline at the World Cup Finals in Saalbach, Austria, being her strongest: Slalom. Following her January injury, Shiffrin has explained that despite their best efforts, the injury has simply not allowed a safe return to Giant Slalom racing, let alone speed events like Super-G or Downhill.
“Hey, I just wanna say thank you all for the birthday wishes. I really appreciate it and I had a nice day. I had a productive GS [Giant Slalom] session actually but we have just run out of time to go through the right progression to be ready to race GS at the World Cup Finals on Sunday. So we’re taking GS off the schedule. I’m gonna focus on Slalom and am really excited for one final race of the season. I’m looking forward to pushing out the gate one more time and then get ready to prep for next year. So, thank you again for the birthday wishes, and, yeah, here we go!”
Mikaela Shiffrin had crashed during the FIS Downhill World Cup in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, in January. While the American skier did not rupture her ACL, MCL, or PCL, it appears the ski racer overstretched her MCL, causing her significant pain. Shiffrin has been working hard at rebuilding strength and stability in her knee but has admitted in the past, that recovery was slow and she was often still in pain.
Shiffrin returned to the World Cup circuit last week, competing at the Slalom but not Giant Slalom race in Åre, Sweden. She won the Slalom race by a smashing 1.24 seconds ahead of second-placed Zrinka Ljutic. The 29-year-old, who celebrated her birthday this week, won her 59th career World Cup Slalom race and also her 96th World Cup race across all disciplines. Despite the 44-day hiatus, Shiffrin won the 23/24 season Small Crystal Globe for the Slalom discipline with Germany’s Lena Dürr in second place.
This marks Shiffrin’s eighth Slalom Crystal Globe, tying her with Lindsey Vonn (Downhill) and Ingemar Stenmark (Giant Slalom and Slalom) for most Small Crystal Globes. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher has eight Big Crystal Globes to his name, awarded to the Alpine skier with the most points across all disciplines. Shiffrin has won the Big Crystal Globe a total of five times and was certainly poised to reclaim the title this season until the fateful injury. The Big Crystal Globe will go instead to Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami, who has won the season title once before in 2016.
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The World Cup Finals will be held at the Austrian resort Saalbach-Hinterglemm over two weekends, March 16-17 and March 22-24.
Men’s Events:
March 16
Giant Slalom
March 17
Slalom
March 22
Super G
March 24
Downhill
Women’s Events:
March 16
Slalom
March 17
Giant Slalom
March 22
Super G
March 23
Downhill
