Veteran Sports writer Nancy Armour has this report about Mikaela Shiffrin’s comeback from a scary puncture wound injury after a crash in Vermont. From the article:
“Shiffrin will return to the World Cup circuit next Thursday in Courchevel, France, just shy of nine weeks after suffering a puncture wound and tearing in her abdominal muscles in a crash during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. The slalom is the last technical race before the world championships Feb. 4-16 in Saalbach, Austria….
“After winning twice in her first three races this year, the expectation was that Shiffrin would get her 100th victory in Killington, one of her favorite venues and a two-hour drive from the Burke Mountain Academy that she attended as a teenager. All was going according to plan after the first run in the giant slalom, where she took a comfortable lead over Sara Hector of Sweden.”
But near the end of her second run, Shiffrin tumbled into a gate, then crashed into the netting, puncturing her abdomen three muscles deep. “Any deeper would have been catastrophic,” she told the assembled media. She came within millimeters of rupturing her colon.
Happily for Team USA, Shiffrin returns this season, not next, and looks to log her 100th career victory, further cementing her legacy as the winningest women’s ski racer in history.
