Mikaela Shiffrin targets return to snow training "in the next week or so" after surgery recovery
The U.S. skier has been sidelined since a crash in the Killington World Cup giant slalom resulted in a puncture wound which required unexpected surgery.
Alpine Skiing
Could Mikaela Shiffrin be back competing this season?
After suffering a bad crash at the end of November, the U.S. Alpine skiing star seemed destined to miss the rest of the 2024/25 World Cup campaign thanks to an unexpected surgery on a puncture wound.
While a full racing comeback may still be unlikely before the season ends in March, it seems Shiffrin's recovery has taken nearly a perfect-case scenario, and the 29-year-old could be back on the slopes in training as early as next week.
On Wednesday (1 January 2025), Shiffrin shared a video of her regaining her fitness in the gym, writing: "Making progress over here…I can move and sweat and use my body which is so exciting!
"This next phase of recovery is all about getting my strength and conditioning back as much as possible while working within the limitations of my obliques. Long hours of gym/rehab time but it’s coming along and I’m so happy with that."
Most importantly, Shiffrin set a date for her return to training on the slopes: "Hoping to work into some easy turns on snow in the next week or so," she added.
Shiffrin suffered the puncture wound and severe muscle trauma to her right oblique on the second run in Vermont on 30 November 2024, and underwent extra surgery to clean the wound on 12 December.
The week after her surgery, she said she was unsure about a return to competitive ski racing this season. "There’s not a lot of precedent for this injury in our sport. We can look at acute oblique tears in baseball, hockey and other sports, but ski racing is different.
"When you think about the force of a GS turn or a slalom turn or a super-G turn, it’s hard to know what the muscle will withstand. We’re giving it a couple of weeks to see. I think we’ll get a clearer view each day of how it’s going to work," she told skiracing.com.
Now, it appears Shiffrin has her answer.
The Colorado native freely admitted in her post that "[t]here’s a little ways to go before I’m ready to truly ski with intensity from a pain and a fitness perspective," ruling out any imminent comeback, but the two-time Olympic champion has overcome these setbacks faster than expected before.
Last year, Shiffrin – who sits one win away from a milestone 100 FIS World Cup victories – crashed on the Olympia della Tofane in January, but still managed to return barely two months later to complete the season.
Another such comeback clearly cannot be ruled out, and Shiffrin herself remains upbeat.
"I am psyched with where we’re at now, kicking off 2025," she wrote.