Mikaela Shiffrin has unexpected injury after puncture wound complications

Mikaela Shiffrin is recovering after undergoing abdominal surgery Thursday evening to remove a stab wound she suffered in a giant slalom crash two weeks ago.

Shiffrin posted an update to Instagram on Saturday as her teammates followed the Birds of Prey course in a women’s downhill race at Beaver Creek. She added: “The biggest bummer right now is not being able to make it to the finish line to watch my teammates race in person at @bcworldcup. But I watch and cheer on TV!”

There is no timetable for Shiffrin’s return to racing after she suffered bruises and a deep puncture in her hip area but no ligament or bone damage in a crash last month in Killington, Vermont. She led after the first run of the GS as she chased her 100th World Cup victory.

With the finish line in sight on her second run, she leaned into the hill, lost a lead and slid into a fence, spinning her head on skis. She crashed into another fence before coming to a stop between the protective fencing. Shiffrin, who has more victories than any alpine ski racer in history, was brought down on a sled. She is recovering at home in nearby Edwards, Colorado.

The 29-year-old explained in her post on Saturday that her surgery was unexpected and came “after she felt a little ill.” She uses a wound vacuum to keep the leak clean.

“It turned out that I had a small cavity deeper than the wound channel that was filled with old hematoma and that did not drain properly with a wound vacuum or normal dressing,” Shiffrin wrote. “So we went in to wash it out and close it with stitches.”

Shiffrin has won five overall World Championship titles, two Olympic gold medals – along with a silver – and seven world championship titles.

She passed Lindsey Vonn’s women’s mark of 82 World Cup victories in January 2023, during a giant slalom in Italy. In March, Shiffrin broke Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s Alpine mark for most World Cup wins when she captured her 87th career race.