Mikaela Shiffrin Just Did the Impossible, Again

Following the fall, she spent about two months off the snow as she recovered, finally returning to the slalom start gate in Courchevel, France, at the end of January. There, she placed 10th.

“It’s quite daunting to think about all the work that lies ahead in returning to my top form. But we’ve come this far by focusing on all of the little details, and that is how we will continue forward,” she added, calling the slalom race a “huge step forward.”

Shiffrin later reaffirmed her slalom skills by earning fifth at world championships and winning the combined event alongside American Breezy Johnson.

But her return to giant slalom — the discipline where she crashed in Killington — has proven more fraught. Ahead of the world championships earlier this month, Shiffrin announced that she had bowed out of giant slalom, which is a faster and riskier discipline than slalom.

“The long-story-short is…I’m not there. Right now, I feel quite far away,” Shiffrin wrote in a post on social media. “Coming to terms with how much fear I have doing an event that I loved so dearly only 2 months ago has been soul-crushing."

She dusted off the cobwebs for a pair of giant slalom races last week in Sestriere but struggled to maintain her usual pace.

In the first giant slalom race, she placed 25th. Then, in the second race, she landed outside the 30-fastest racers and failed to qualify for the day’s second run. It was the first time she'd done so since 2012, marking a departure from her usual competitive standing, which, over the course of her career, has included 22 World Cup giant slalom wins.

“For the rest of the season, my goal is sort of fighting for some points, so I can try to stay in the top 30 in GS, which is a very different position from the last many years when I was fighting for podiums. That’s not where I am right now, and that’s OK,” Shiffrin told the Associated Press following the first Sestriere giant slalom race.

But in slalom — Shiffrin’s preferred discipline — she’s proven that, despite the setback in Killington, she’s once again as competitive as ever. Her 100th World Cup win prompted adoration from her fellow racers, including historical greats.

“100 World Cup victories for Mikaela; unbelievable, spectacular,” Annemarie Moser-Pröll, a well-decorated former ski racer from Austria with 62 World Cup titles, said in an article published by the FIS. “She doesn't just want to win; she blows the competition away.”

“One thing is certain for me; Mikaela is and will remain the best ever,” Moser-Pröll added.