American Mikaela Shiffrin was injured in the giant slalom competition in November.
Multiple prize winner, US Mikaela Shiffrin the trip to the World Alpine Skiing Championships in Saalbach, Austria in a couple of weeks is still a question mark. Shiffrin was injured at the end of November in Killington when he fell in the giant slalom competition and received a deep puncture wound to his stomach from the pole.
Over the past eight years, Shiffrin has been almost entirely responsible for the country’s World Cup success. From the 2017 Games in St. Moritz to this day, the USA has taken 14 individual World Cup medals, of which Shiffrin has won 12. The remaining two have been grabbed by the athlete who returned to the slopes after a six-year hiatus Lindsey Vonn.
Shiffrin is already back on the snow and her coach Janne Haarala has flown to the US, suggesting that the work towards a return to competition has begun. At the moment, Haaralaka is not able to assess whether his protégé will still be seen at the World Championships starting at the beginning of February.
– To be honest, I don’t know either, Haarala, reached from the United States, tells Urheilu.
Almost a couple of months have passed since Shiffrin’s injury. Haarala hopes that they would have been able to properly train on the snow by now. Based on social media posts, Shiffrin has still spent a lot of time in the gym, and the recovery after training has required a lot of days off.
– Of course, I hope that we will compete in the World Championships. I would have liked us to have already participated in Kronplatz, but that didn’t happen, Haarala continues.
In alpine skiing, skiers must carefully consider when to return to the competition slopes after an injury. Shiffrin has even hinted at missing the rest of the season. With his injury status, he would be able to secure a good starting position until he returns to competitions.
The upcoming World Championships for Haarala would be real home competitions, as he lives about half an hour away by car in Maria Almi. But whether he will get there is still completely unclear.
– Of course, the most important thing is the athlete’s health. We now only go one day at a time, Haarala says.