Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finally feels “like myself again” after recovering from a ski racing crash last season and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Shiffrin described in an essay for The Players’ Tribune released Friday the physical and mental hurdles she needed to clear after her serious spill during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 30. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin’s side and caused severe damage to her oblique muscles.

“Everyone knows what it feels like to have a bad cough. But PTSD … it’s not like that,” the 30-year-old from Edwards, Colorado, wrote. “It comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone experiences it in their own way, and no two cases are exactly alike.”

Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS that day in Killington. With the finish line in sight on her final run, she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping over her skis. The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. To this day, she doesn’t know what led to the puncture wound, only that it was “a millimeter from pretty catastrophic,” she told The Associated Press.

Shiffrin wrote in The Players’ Tribune it was “difficult to explain what the pain felt like. But the closest I can get would probably be, it was like … not only was there a knife stabbing me, but the knife was actually still inside of me.”

In late January, Shiffrin returned to the World Cup circuit. The giant slalom, though, remained a cause of anxiety and she skipped the event at world championships.

Ever so steadily, she’s working on overcoming the mental trauma surrounding the GS as she gears up for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Games. She won an Olympic gold medal in the discipline at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

She’s been working with a psychologist to conquer her mental obstacles.

“I can admit that there were some extremely low moments,” recounted Shiffrin, who won her 100th career World Cup ski race in February. “Times when I started second-guessing myself, or was critical of myself because I felt like I was letting what happened mess with me so much. It was like: Come on, Mikaela, people have had way worse crashes than that, way worse injuries. Those people got through it. What is wrong with you?

“On particularly bad days, I’d question my motivation, or whether I still wanted to do this anymore. In my head, I’d be saying to myself: You know what, I kind of couldn’t care less if I ever race again.”

She and the therapist began looking at her recovery through the prism of PTSD.

“With me, I also think it’s possible that the crash I had at the beginning of 2024 in Cortina, and then Killington happening. … that those two crashes maybe built on one another,” Shiffrin said. “I talked with my therapist about that, and she let me know that past trauma, or a history of traumatic events, can sometimes affect your reaction to new traumatic events.”

She lost her dad, Jeff, five years ago in a home accident. Her fiancé and fellow ski racer Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway is still recovering from a serious ski crash on Jan. 13, 2024.

“Maybe when I crashed and got that puncture wound, maybe that was kind of a perfect-storm situation for PTSD to take hold,” Shiffrin wrote.

Shiffrin said one thing that’s helped is “getting back to a place of joy.” She closed her essay with: “All I can do is smile with appreciation. Because, finally …. I feel like myself again.”

___

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Denver NWSL announced Tuesday morning that Mikaela Shiffrin, the most decorated alpine skier of all time, joined the club’s ownership group led by its governor, Rob Cohen.

Shiffrin, who has won two golds and a silver at the Olympic Winter Games on top of 15 medals at the World Championships, holds the record for World Cup wins with 101. She’s also claimed five overall World Cup titles over 15 seasons on the circuit and has been named Colorado Sportswoman of the Year six times.

In a statement, the 30-year-old Vail native said she’s “beyond thrilled to join the ownership group of Denver NWSL and support something so meaningful in the community I call home.”

“The sport culture in Colorado is rich and deep, and — most notably — the growth of women’s sports is one of the most exciting movements in our culture today,” Shiffrin said. “I am very excited about the public-private partnerships with Denver, Centennial and the Cherry Creek school district that will help deliver state-of-the-art facilities designed specifically for women.

“To be part of it, and to help bring professional women’s soccer to Colorado, is not only an incredible investment opportunity — but it is both an honor and a joy.”

The addition of Shiffrin to the ownership group of Denver NWSL, which has yet to announce a name, comes at a pivotal time for the club.

In March, Denver NWSL announced plans for a 14,500-seat stadium and entertainment district at Santa Fe Yards. Nine days later, the club announced a partnership with the city of Centennial and Cherry Creek School District to build a training facility and 12,000-seat modular stadium that will serve as the team’s temporary home.

The permanent stadium in Denver is set for a final decision by Denver City Council on May 12, when the council will decide whether to pass an intergovernmental agreement that calls for the city to invest up to $70 million in the project. If it doesn’t pass, Cohen told the council last month, the team is unlikely to stay in Denver.

In the meantime, Cohen called Shiffrin “a perfect addition to our ownership group” as the club continues to work to get ready for its inaugural season in 2026 as the state’s second women’s pro sports team and first since the Colorado Xplosion of the American Basketball Association from 1996 to ’98.

“We’re building a club with purpose, and having Mikaela’s vision and voice in that journey will be invaluable,” Cohen said.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin started the World Cup slalom season with a win. She closed it out the exact same way.

In between, a serious crash in the giant slalom, a difficult recovery, struggles with confidence, battles with post-traumatic stress disorder and finally rediscovering that winning form.

“This one has been quite a roller coaster,” Shiffrin said of her season. “There’s been some really thrilling moments and some moments where I questioned if I should even be in the sport.”

Shiffrin smoothly navigated a bumpy and rut-filled course to easily win the women’s slalom Thursday at the World Cup finals.

No playing it safe for the American ski racing standout, either. The first-run leader, Shiffrin found another burst to finish in a combined time of 1 minute, 45.92 seconds and beat Lena Duerr of Germany by 1.13 seconds. Andreja Slokar of Slovenia took third.

Shiffrin glided through the course at Sun Valley with a large crowd cheering her through every gate.

Indeed, she heard them.

“Super helpful, but it’s also a level of pressure,” Shiffrin explained. “You can feel the energy and that’s really exciting, but you can also hear the kids or whoever it is lining the side of the course saying, ‘Come on Mikaela, you’ve got this. We want to see it.’ Everybody’s so positive.

“But sometimes I’m like, ‘Just put it out of your mind. Put it away.’ In the end, I was standing in the start gate and I was thinking, ‘Do I ski this, somehow, like get to the finish and get valuable points, or do I take some risk?’ … I heard everybody cheering and was like, ‘All right, (expletive) it.’”

It was an injury-marred season for Shiffrin, who competed in only the slalom at finals. The 30-year-old Shiffrin has missed four slalom races this season and that’s kept her from retaining her title in the discipline. She still finished in fourth place in the slalom standings.

Croatian ski racer Zrinka Ljutic was 10th in Thursday’s race — good enough to put the finishing touches on capturing the season-long slalom title. She won over Katharina Liensberger of Austria, with Camille Rast of Switzerland taking third.

The 21-year-old Ljutic earned last season’s “rising star” award and is showing that talent ahead of the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.

“It feels amazing,” Ljutic said of the slalom title. “It’s everything I’ve worked for, really, in my life.”

U.S. skier Paula Moltzan had a fast second run Thursday — finishing sixth — two days after a crash in the giant slalom. She wore a bandage on her chin.

The women’s World Cup overall race saw Italy’s Federica Brignone take first (1,594 points), Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami second (1,272) and Brignone’s teammate Sofia Goggia finish third (931). The three didn’t race on Thursday.

For Shiffrin, a painful season drew to a close. She’s worked her way back from a serious giant slalom crash in Killington, Vermont, in late November, where she suffered a deep puncture wound that caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles. The crash led to emotional trauma, too, leaving her with PTSD in the GS.

But she’s in a better frame of mind ahead of the Olympics.

“This race and finishing with a good mentality, good intensity and really strong skiing, that’s going to help me for the full preparation,” Shiffrin said. “You get a taste of why we train so hard. That makes it a little bit easier to dive into the next months with a good attitude.”

This season included a memorable milestone for Shiffrin when she won her 100th World Cup race during a slalom in Italy on Feb. 23.

On Thursday, Shiffrin picked up World Cup win No. 101. Fittingly, there were kids in the crowd dressed in puppy outfits — a nod to Disney’s “101 Dalmatians.”

“I saw them on the jumbotron on the first run. I was like, ‘That’s so clever, but hopefully I don’t mess it up,’” Shiffrin said with a laugh.

She wouldn’t. Not even as the last women’s racer on a deteriorating course. Then again, she trains on courses with similar conditions for moments just like this.

“We all just went, ‘Wow,’” said Shiffrin’s coach, Karin Harjo, of the the final run as the racer reached the 500-point mark, which gives her better starting positions next season.

When she takes the slalom course, any slalom course, Shiffrin’s been tough to beat. She’s won four of the six World Cup slalom races she’s been in this season.

Over her career, Shiffrin has finished first, second or third in a World Cup slalom race in 89 of 118 starts, which is a 75.4% podium rate. She’s won slalom 64 times — a 54.2% victory rate.

“Her skiing is out of this world,” Ljutic said. “Coming back from this injury, this was a master class. I definitely have a lot to work on coming into next season.”

___

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

The tears suddenly began to form. That was her dad’s favorite tune.

These days, the American ski racing standout has been thinking a lot about her father, Jeff Shiffrin. He died five years ago in a home accident.

Her father helped nurture her love of skiing. He offered tips and suggestions, usually taking in her races off to the side and with a camera dangling from a strap around his neck.

Mikaela Shiffrin can’t help wonder what he would’ve thought of her recently earning World Cup win No. 100.

“I just wish,” she said, “I could ask him.”

This season has been so difficult for Shiffrin, a painful season that winds down Thursday after her slalom race at the World Cup finals. The two-time Olympic champion continues to work her way back from a crash during the giant slalom in Killington, Vermont, in November. She suffered a deep puncture wound that caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles. It caused emotional trauma, too, leaving her with post-traumatic stress disorder in the GS.

Next season, there’s the pressure of the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Shiffrin struggled at the 2022 Beijing Games and didn’t medal over five individual events.

Dad could’ve been a huge help in managing all of these emotions.

Jeff Shiffrin died at age 65 on Feb. 2, 2020, in an accident at the family home in Colorado. He was an anesthesiologist who leaned on his background in clinical science to help Mikaela develop original training methods and unique workout programs. What he instilled in her was focus and to remain present in any moment.

On race days, he pretty much stayed in the background, sometimes even climbing trees adjacent to a race hill to catch a glimpse of her flying through a course. Her father, with his familiar bushy mustache, was always there for suggestions, video breakdown and, of course, hugs.

“This season I’ve been definitely thinking about him a lot,” Mikaela Shiffrin said in an interview with The Associated Press. “A lot of it has been more emotional and I think more sad than it’s been in a while, actually. I’m sure that’s tied to some of the other experiences I’ve had this year.”

She’s not quite sure what he would’ve thought of her winning her 100th World Cup race during a slalom in Sestriere, Italy, on Feb. 23.

“One of the worst things for me is when people say he would have been proud,” Shiffrin said. “I’m like, ‘Well, we don’t know that. Maybe he would have told me to move on from ski racing now. Go find something else to do.’

“But I imagine he would have been sort of like the awkward, giggly dad proud. If anyone asked him, he might have brushed it off and been like, ‘We’re just trying to ski well.’”

She’s got her mom and brother for support. Her fiance, Norwegian standout Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, too.

She leans on them — and will lean on them as the Olympics approach. Because the Beijing Games will be mentioned often to Shiffrin. Everything just felt different, including the venue and the lack of fans because of the pandemic to create any sort of buzz.

This version of the Winter Games takes place at a well-known venue in Cortina, on a well-known hill where Shiffrin won a World Cup super-G race in 2019 and a world championship Alpine combined gold medal in 2021.

“In many ways, Cortina is going to be — it might actually feel like my first Olympics in a place where Alpine skiing doesn’t feel like an afterthought,” said Shiffrin, who won the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games and the GS gold four years later in Pyeongchang.

She figures to have company in the spotlight, too, with Lindsey Vonn back on the scene. The 40-year-old Vonn recently completed her comeback season after a partial knee replacement with a second-place showing at the World Cup finals in the super-G.

“Watching her ski that way (Sunday) with really challenging conditions … was really impressive,” the 30-year-old Shiffrin said. “I thought her skiing was really powerful.”

On Thursday, no matter how she finishes, Shiffrin will be relinquishing her overall slalom title after winning the discipline’s crystal globe the past two seasons. She currently is sixth in the season-long slalom standings (she missed four slalom races after her crash), with a chance to finish second or third. Zrinka Ljutic Croatia leads with three other racers within striking distance for the crown.

“There’s still a level of focus and intensity that I really want to bring to the slalom,” Shiffrin said. “I also want to ski my best. For whatever is in front of me, I want to be able to handle it with my best game, my best turns.”

That’s a mindset her dad helped instill.

Lately, little things have been reminding her of him. Like that Simon song.

“That song (coming on at the celebration), it was a gift for me,” Shiffrin said. “I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to start bawling.’ Certain music makes me think of him. Certain clothing makes me think of him. Those memories come back in flashes and at very unexpected times.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

For her, as she deals with post-traumatic stress disorder in the discipline, that’s major progress.

While the other racers compete in the GS on Tuesday at World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Shiffrin plans to squeeze in some training in the slalom. It will be the American standout’s only event of the weeklong finals after not qualifying in giant slalom.

The two-time Olympic champion revealed last month that she’s suffering from PTSD after falling in the GS on Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin’s side and caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles.

Shiffrin skipped the giant slalom at world championships and has raced the discipline three times since, with her best showing 25th place.

But she’s back to turning in fast sections at practice in the GS, a discipline that blends speed and technical skill.

“Training is going well. It’s actually super positive. Training has been improving day-by-day,” Shiffrin said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday night before signing autographs for fans. “I’m just trying to get back to the confidence that I was skiing with in Killington when the crash happened. That would be a big goal.”

On that day, Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS as she charged after her 100th World Cup win. The finish line was in sight on her final run, when she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping head over skis.

The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. She still doesn’t know what led to the puncture wound.

To get back in the starting gate, she’s been working with a psychologist. Leading into world championships and the GS, she checked most of the boxes for PTSD symptoms. A few weeks later in Are, Sweden, she checked fewer.

“My processing speed and the mind-body connection has come back in a great way,” explained Shiffrin, who earned her 100th World Cup win last month in Italy. “But every now and then I’ll still have the sort of intrusive images or thoughts cross my mind of crashing or the pain. Normally, it’s in the start gate. If I’m starting to get a little bit tired in a session, I just imagine everything that could go wrong and it’s kind of an intense reaction.

“But it happens so much less often now. It does feel very true that simply exposure to doing the thing that’s pretty uncomfortable is helpful.”

Following her slalom training session Tuesday, Shiffrin will be watching as New Zealand’s Alice Robinson tries to hold off Italy’s Federica Brignone for the crystal globe in the giant slalom.

The 30-year-old Shiffrin can see glimpses of her GS form returning. She won an Olympic gold medal in the discipline at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and 22 of her 100 World Cup victories have come in giant slalom.

“Some of my turns are competitive with the fastest in the world,” said Shiffrin, whose slalom race is Thursday. “But putting that together for a minute and 10-second GS run — that just takes time and repetition. We’ll need to try to get some days this summer with long course sets, with a lot of variation of course sets, variation of conditions. I don’t doubt that I can get to that competitive level again.

“I think a lot of my skiing is already there.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Vonn found her vintage form while flying down the twisting and steep Challenger course at the World Cup finals. The American pumped her ski poles after glancing at the scoreboard as the large crowd roared.

This was Vonn’s first World Cup podium spot since March 15, 2018, when she finished third in a super-G in Are, Sweden. Vonn came out of retirement this season after a partial knee replacement.

It was Vonn’s 138th career World Cup podium in her 408th World Cup start. She is within one of tying the most starts by a female racer, a mark held by Renate Goetschl of Austria.

Gut-Behrami finished in a time of 1 minute, 12.35 seconds — edging Vonn by 1.29 seconds — to earn the season-long super-G crystal globe by overtaking Italian racer Federica Brignone. Gut-Behrami trailed by five points heading into Sunday’s race. Gut-Behrami found plenty of speed and took some calculated risks to glide through the course. Brignone finished third, 1.33 seconds behind the time of Gut-Behrami.

The final season-long super-G standings ended up Gut-Behrami, Brignone and Sofia Goggia of Italy.

On Saturday, Brignone officially clinched the downhill discipline after the race was canceled, along with the the overall title.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Racing through steadily falling snow with a first-run lead, Shiffrin was only 25th-fastest in the second run to finish in third place, 0.19 seconds behind surprise winner Katharina Truppe.

Katharina Liensberger placed second, trailing 0.05 behind her Austria teammate, whose first career World Cup win was earned at age 29.

“Katharina Day!” Shiffrin said in the finish area as she hugged the two racers who beat her.

“I actually feel pretty good about it,” Shiffrin said of her fifth slalom race in her comeback from a serious crash in November. “I maybe wasn’t always perfect but I was pushing really hard.”

Shiffrin’s 156th top-3 result in her World Cup career broke a tie with Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark. Shiffrin also took the all-time wins record from Stenmark and now has 100 to his 86.

Truppe now has one from her 181st World Cup start, though she has three championship medals including the team event gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“It’s just: ‘Wow.’ I’m a little bit speechless,” said Truppe, who had been sixth-fastest in the morning run, trailing Shiffrin by 0.91. “First victory, it’s crazy. I will enjoy it and soak up all this emotion.”

Both Truppe and Shiffrin are aged 29 and won slalom bronze medals at the junior world championships though their careers were on different trajectories. Shiffrin won her medal aged 15 in 2011 and already had two World Cup slalom titles and Olympic gold before Truppe got her junior worlds medal in 2015.

Shiffrin needed to win Sunday to earn 100 race points and stay in contention — though only just – for a ninth career season-long slalom title. She missed four slalom races while recovering from her physical and psychological injuries.

“I’m still trying to get the repetition back. I just have to keep practicing it,” she said.

With Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova skipping the entire season to recover from a knee injury, the door opened for a new World Cup title winner.

The World Cup season-ending last slalom is at Sun Valley, Idaho, on March 27 with four skiers ahead of Shiffrin and within 100 points of the lead to lift the crystal globe trophy.

Title-chasing contenders Zrinka Ljutic and Camille Rast, the world championships gold medalist last month, both were below their best form Sunday and placed 10th and 11th, respectively.

Ahead of going to the United States, the 21-year-old Ljutic leads Rast in the slalom standings by 41 points and will win the title with a top-three result. Liensberger, the 2021 champion, and Rast’s Swiss teammate Wendy Holdener also could win.

Shiffrin said she plans to train in Europe before the trip across seven time zones, to the Idaho resort that last staged World Cup races in 1977.

“There’s certainly some travel challenges. It’s a really long distance,” she said. “I guess one more race this season for me but I’m looking forward to it.”

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Brignone was fastest in both runs of a World Cup giant slalom Saturday to score a dominating victory and take another big step toward a second career overall title.

Shiffrin failed to finish in the first run, going out when she skied wide after approaching a right-hand turn too fast.

Brignone raced last in the afternoon as the first-run leader and extended her margin to 1.36 seconds over Alice Robinson. Lara Colturi was third, trailing Brignone by 1.43.

Despite holding a huge lead, the Italian star pushed for more speed and almost crashed within sight of the finish when she was launched up with both skis off the snow.

“It was a bit slippery. Then I had that mistake and I said, ‘Oh no, this is over,’” she said.

Brignone has won every giant slalom race she has completed this season, including a world championships gold medal last month. She failed to finish in three World Cup races.

Robinson’s consistent results means she still leads Brignone in the giant slalom standings by 20 points with one race left on March 25 at Sun Valley, Idaho.

“It’s an amazing fight,” Brignone said of her rival from New Zealand. “She has been on the podium every race and she’s an amazing skier.”

Brignone is racing toward a second overall World Cup title at age 34.

With 100 points earned for Saturday’s win, she leads by 322 over Lara Gut-Behrami, the defending champion, who placed ninth.

Brignone’s 36th career World Cup race win also was her 21st since turning 30, a record in the women’s World Cup. Downhill great Lindsey Vonn has 15 wins since her 30th birthday and Gut-Behrami has 12.

Sofia Goggia has four wins in her 30s and still no podium result in giant slalom for seven years. Starting the second run in second place, Goggia was on track to set the fastest time when she came to a stop after taking too much speed through a turn.

Shiffrin has now started three giant slaloms since suffering a deep puncture wound in her stomach during a GS crash in Killington, Vermont more than three months ago. Her results have been a 25th place, failing to qualify for a second run and now a “did not finish.”

The United States star has returned to top form in slalom, which is raced Sunday. She got her record-extending 100th career World Cup win in a slalom two weeks ago.

Brignone and Gut-Behrami both skip racing in slalom.

___

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Less than 14 years after her debut race as a 16-year-old in March 2011, the American won a slalom in Italy on Sunday to get her tally of victories to three digits.

No other skier, male or female, has ever won more than 86 races.

Shiffrin has racked up 63 wins in slalom, 22 in giant slaloms, 5 in super-G, 4 in downhill, 1 in Alpine combined and 5 in parallel races.

The two-time Olympic champion completed her century of World Cup victories in 278 starts for a whopping win rate of 36%.

“I wasn’t planning to win”

Here is a look at 10 of Shiffrin’s most notable World Cup victories.

— No. 1: Slalom in Are, Sweden on Dec. 12, 2012

In her 24th World Cup start and early in her first full season on the circuit, Shiffrin lands her maiden victory in a night race. At 17, she becomes the second-youngest American ever to win a World Cup race, after Judy Nagel.

— No. 4: Slalom in Lenzerheide, Switzerland on March 16, 2013

Making up a big opening-run deficit of 1.17 seconds for a come-from-behind win in the season-ending slalom sees Shiffrin edge out overall champion Tina Maze in the final slalom standings. Shiffrin gets her first crystal globe, a day after her 18th birthday.

— No. 16: Slalom in Aspen, Colorado on Nov. 28, 2015

Shiffrin crushes the field to win a race in her native Colorado by 3.07 seconds, still the biggest-ever winning margin in a women’s World Cup slalom. “I don’t know if the stars will ever align like that again,” she says. They almost do the next day, when Shiffrin wins another slalom by 2.65 seconds.

— Nos. 24-26: Two giant slaloms, one slalom in Semmering, Austria on Dec. 27-29, 2016

Three races on three consecutive days between Christmas and New Year — and Shiffrin wins them all. This achievement, though, is not a one-off. When the Austrian resort hosts three races in three days again in 2022, Shiffrin just does it all again.

— No. 33: Downhill in Lake Louise, Alberta on Dec. 2, 2017

After starting as a tech specialist, Shiffrin ventures into speed events in late 2016 on the way to her first overall title. In only her third downhill start a year later, she gets her first podium, only to back it up with her maiden downhill victory the next day. “I wasn’t planning to win,” she says, just “do my best and see what happened.”

“It’s not over yet, which is even more ridiculous”

— No. 46: Super-G in Lake Louise on Dec. 2, 2018

A year to the day after her first downhill triumph, Shiffrin wins a super-G and becomes the only skier, male or female, with wins in all six Alpine disciplines. Shiffrin goes on to win 17 races that season; no other skier has ever won more than 14 in a single World Cup campaign.

— No. 67: Giant slalom in Courchevel, France on Dec. 14, 2020

What might seem like just another GS win is one of her most meaningful victories — the first since the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, 10 months earlier. “I definitely didn’t ski alone today. I had a lot of strength from a lot of people. It’s a bit bittersweet,” Shiffrin says after the race.

— No. 73: Slalom in Schladming, Austria on Jan. 11, 2022

Beating her long-term rival Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin adds slalom victory No. 47 to her tally, more than any other skier, male or female, has ever won in a single discipline. The previous best mark — 46 GS wins by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark — stood for 33 years.

— No. 87: Slalom in Are on March 11, 2023

Less than seven weeks after overtaking Lindsey Vonn as the winningest female ski racer with her career win 83, Shiffrin sets the outright record. The best mark of 86 wins seemed unbeatable when Stenmark set it 34 years earlier, but Shiffrin gets win No. 87 — in a race held in Stenmark’s home country. “It’s pretty hard to describe — and it’s not over yet, which is even more ridiculous,” Shiffrin says.

— No. 100: Slalom in Sestriere, Italy on Feb. 23, 2025

Even before Shiffrin was to beat his record of 86 wins, Stenmark predicted in an AP interview in early 2023 that the American “can win more than 100.” Two years later, Shiffrin reaches the milestone in what is her first World Cup victory after a two-month injury break. She sustained an abdominal injury in a GS crash at her home race in Killington, Vermont in November, when she led in the second run and seemed on course for win No. 100.

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.

Shiffrin’s record-extending 100th career World Cup race win Sunday fulfilled a quest put on hold by a serious crash in November.

Back to racing in her favored slalom event, Shiffrin kept and added to her first-run lead to finish 0.61 seconds ahead of Zrinka Ljutic. Shiffrin’s U.S. teammate Paula Moltzan was third, 0.64 back.

The 29-year-old Shiffrin also tied an all-time World Cup record for men and women, as her 155th career top-3 finish on the podium matched Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark.

Shiffrin crossed the finish line and took a long look at the scoreboard showing her victory. She then looked again over her left shoulder with an expression of amazement.

She lay down on the snow with her right hand to her helmet, and was helped to her feet by Moltzan who hugged her.

Shiffrin cried at first when she was asked in a post-race interview what it meant after all she had been through in the past few months.

“Everyone had been so nice and so supportive. I am so grateful, thank you,” she said.

Shiffrin’s 99th win was earned exactly three months ago in a slalom at Gurgl, Austria.

No. 100 had been within clear sight one week later when Shriffin crashed out of a giant slalom at Killington, Vermont, while racing fast as the first-run leader.

The injuries she suffered in a tumbling fall — severe trauma to her oblique muscles and a deep puncture wound — sidelined her for several weeks and left “PTSD-like” anxiety about racing giant slalom.

In two giant slaloms at Sestriere, she placed 25th Friday and on Saturday finished outside the top-30 fastest racers in the first run for the first time since 2012.

Shiffrin showed no sign of nerves with an aggressive second run to victory, a full half-second faster than Ljutic who is a three-time winner this season in World Cup slaloms.

“A lot of things had to go right in my direction for this to happen. But I did something right, too,” a tearful Shiffrin said.

Shiffrin and Stenmark are the two greatest record setters in the World Cup’s 58-year history.

“She’s much better than I was. You cannot compare,” Stenmark said in an interview with The Associated Press two years ago.

His record of 86 World Cup wins was broken by Shiffrin in March 2023, almost 34 years after his last win. Stenmark’s 86th win — a giant slalom at Aspen, Colorado in February 1989 — also was his 155th and last podium result.

Shiffrin matched Stenmark’s tally of top-3 results in six fewer starts. Sunday was her 278th World Cup race and Stenmark’s last podium was in his 284th, according to the ski-db.com site.

___

https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.