Mikaela Shiffrin on the slopes in full training again as back injury improves

Despite still being on the recovery path from a bad back, double alpine skiing Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin has returned to full training on the slopes ahead of planned World Cup races later this month.

The 26-year-old has been struggling with a problem in her back since October, but now says the injury has progressed sufficiently to a point where she is able to ski.

On Thursday and Friday (11–12 November), the American was able to take to the pistes twice on each day at Copper Mountain in Colorado, where the U.S. ski team trains.

"That was a really, really big step forward," Shiffrin told the Associated Press.

While things are still not perfect – "it still gets aggravated sometimes", Shiffrin said – it's "nothing that is not manageable" as she gears up for her intended World Cup return with a pair of slalom races in Levi, Finland, next week.

Shiffrin spent the two days on the mountain doing double sessions, practising Super-G and slalom on Thursday before doing downhill and slalom on Friday.

Of her training sessions in three different disciplines, she explained: "It’s just kind of adding variability back into the training program."

The American's season has been an up-and-down one. Shiffrin won the season-opener, a giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, for her 70th World Cup win.

But until her recent training sessions, she had been kept off the snow by the back trouble. She explained at the time that the issue felt like "a very severe muscle spasm or kind of a strain".

Earlier this week, her coach Mike Day said that things were looking up, although he also confirmed Shiffrin would skip the Lech/Zürs parallel event as planned.

"Mikaela is progressing but we haven't been able to do much until today," Day explained.

"It's a problem that first started in Soelden but unfortunately she couldn't handle it when she tried to return to training shortly after the race. Since then she has focused on her treatment and tried skiing again, which didn't work out. But things are looking better."

The U.S. Ski team posted video of Shiffrin skiing tentatively on snow at Copper Mountain on 6 November. Since then, she has slowly worked her load up.

"We are still going to take it day by day and adjust the plan if we have to," she said.

Will she be back to full fitness in time for Levi? Even Shiffrin is unsure – although that may not stop her.

"I don’t really expect to feel ready to race. At this point, I never actually feel ready. You just race, I guess."

After Levi, Shiffrin will return to the United States as the 'White Circus', as the World Cup is known, visits North America for the first time since 2019, with two races in Killington, in Vermont, before the circuit heads north to Lake Louise in Canada.