Mikaela Shiffrin Wins Her 100th World Cup After Puncture Injury

• Mikaela Shiffrin is the first skier to win the World Cup 100 times
• The Olympic skier won gold less than three months after crashing during a competition at the Stifel Killington Cup in Vermont, sustaining a puncture to her abdomen
• In celebration of her win, Shiffrin has partnered with Share Winter Foundation to help kids gain access to ski and snowboarding programs

Less than three months after sustaining a serious injury, Mikaela Shiffrin made history by winning her 100th World Cup. 

On Sunday, Feb. 23, the Olympic skier took the championship title in slalom at the World Cup in Sestriere, Italy, securing a second win shortly after her return to the slopes. No skier, man or woman, has achieved such a level of success before.

“It was a big push today, and a pretty emotional season, actually,” Shiffrin, 29, told reporters after her historic win. “This is really special… to share it with my teammate again, that’s amazing.” 

Shiffrin has been candid about her painful recovery after she crashed while competing at the Stifel Killington Cup in Vermont last November. Her second run, which could have led to her 100th World Cup victory, instead ended after she hit a gate and slid into the netting, according to the official Olympics site. In a video she posted on X, Shiffrin explained that she got “stabbed” by a sharp object during the fall, later revealing she needed surgery to treat a puncture wound in her abdomen.

Earlier this month, Shiffrin decided to bow out of the women’s giant slalom (GS) in the World Alpine Skiing Championships in Saalbach, Austria, citing a “struggle” with PTSD.

“No World Champs GS for me. 😣💆‍♀️,” Shiffrin announced on Instagram on Feb. 10, ahead of the Feb. 13 competition in which she would have defended her title. “The long-story-short is…I’m not there. Right now, I feel quite far away.”

“I’m currently working through some mental obstacles in order to return to the GS start with the intensity required for racing,” continued the seven-time world champion medalist. 

After some encouragement from her team, Shiffrin did feel strong enough to participate in the team combined event, in which she and teammate Breezy Johnson took gold, according to ESPN. 

Now, after weeks of recovery, Sunday’s record-breaking win in Italy feels even more special. 

“It certainly feels like I’ve been fighting a lot lately,” Shiffrin told reporters. 

“It’s been hard to find the right momentum and the right flow to work through the injury, to come back and compete with these women who are skiing so strong and so fast,” she continued. “ I have wondered in the last weeks, so many times, whether it is the right thing to come back.” 

While Shiffrin admitted that she and her team “didn’t take the easy way,” she’s glad she returned to competitive skiing.

“In the end, in order to keep moving forward, to finish this recovery, I have to be in the start gate,” Shiffrin said following the slalom race, “and I have to experience these emotions when they’re good and when they’re bad. That’s really important.”

Shiffrin won her first World Cup when she was 16 years old. She is the first skier in the world to win in each of the tournament’s six types of races, according to a press release announcing her achievement. 

In celebration of her win, Shiffrin has joined up with Share Winter Foundation to help raise $100,000, which will help 200 kids gain access to skiing and snowboarding educational programs.

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“It’s far bigger than me winning 100 races,” said Shiffrin in a statement about the partnership. “This will make that 100th victory one of the most meaningful to me,”

As she continues competing, Shiffrin is taking it one day and one win at a time. 

“Today was just an amazing day in the middle of some really tough months,” Shiffrin told reporters after the competition. “But I’m very thankful for this day.”