Mikaela Shiffrin’s home bid for historic 100th win ends in nasty crash

American ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin was on alert and assessed for injuries after she crashed during her second run of a World Cup giant slalom race on Saturday, somersaulting and sliding into protective fencing.

Shiffrin lay at the edge of the trail for a long time while the ski patrol tended to her. She was brought down the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd. The U.S. Ski Team said she was taken to a medical clinic for evaluation.

The 29-year-old Shiffrin led after the first run of the GS and stormed ahead after her 100th World Cup victory. She was within sight of the finish line, five gates to Killington’s steep finish field, when she lost control of her outdoor ski. She hit a fence and somersaulted before sliding into another fence. The fencing slowed her speed as she came to an abrupt stop.

Reigning Olympic GS champion Sara Hector of Sweden won in a combined time of 1 minute 53.08 seconds. But her thoughts were instead on Shiffrin.

“It is of course so sad to see Mikaela crash like this and ski so well,” Hector said in the broadcast after her victory. “It breaks my heart and everyone else here.”

The crash was a surprise, as Shiffrin rarely registers a “DNF” or fails to finish. In 275 World Championship starts, she has recorded a DNF only 19 times. The last time she didn’t finish in GS was January 2018.

Saturday was expected to be a banner day for Shiffrin, who skied clear in her first run and opened up a 0.32-second lead as she chased her 100th World Cup victory in front of her home crowd. Shiffrin grew up in both New Hampshire and Colorado and honed her skills at nearby Burke Mountain Academy.

Shiffrin isn’t driven so much by wins, but by making the perfect run. She has broken quite a few records along the way. She passed Lindsey Vonn’s women’s mark of 82 World Cup victories on January 24, 2023, during a giant slalom at Kronplatz, Italy.

Nearly two months later, Shiffrin broke Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s Alpine mark for most World Cup victories when she captured her 87th career race.

Shiffrin hasn’t suffered as many devastating injuries as many ski racers. In her 14-year career, she has had to repair only two injuries that happened on the mound: a torn medial collateral ligament and bone bruises in her right knee in December 2015 and a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee after a downhill run. crashed in January 2024. Neither knee injury required surgery and both times Shiffrin was back racing within two months.

To date, she has won five overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals – along with a silver – and seven world championship titles.

Shiffrin’s signature event, the slalom, will be held Sunday. She has won six of the seven slalom races she has competed in in Killington.

Meanwhile, fans hoping to see the world’s best female skiers compete next week in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, are out of luck. The World Cup stop was canceled on Saturday because the weather was not cold enough to provide the necessary snow.