Mikaela Shiffrin’s grief explored in new docuseries on Olympic skier
Mikaela Shiffrin’s performance at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing was marked by a series of DNFs in events she had previously medaled in, with her best finish being fourth in the mixed team event. This disappointment came after her historic 2022-23 season, where she broke Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time world cup wins record and secured five medals in five races at the 2023 FIS Alpine Ski World Championships.
Despite these achievements, Shiffrin’s Olympic journey was not without its challenges, including a crash in the downhill event and a deep puncture wound in her abdomen during a giant slalom crash last season. These incidents required her to recover physically and mentally, only returning to her winning form at the World Cup in Semmering, Austria, late last year.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s grief over dad’s death could have ended her career
USA TODAY
Feb. 5, 2026, 12:44 p.m. ET
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin’s grief after her father died was so great her mother didn’t think the all-time World Cup wins leader would ever ski again.
Shiffrin’s father Jeff died Feb. 2, 2020, after falling off the roof of the family’s home. Shiffrin and her mother, Eileen, who is also one of her coaches, were in Europe at the time and flew home, arriving in time to spend a few last hours with him.
“Mikaela laid with her head on his chest for nine hours, I think,” Eileen Shiffrin said in a new episode of adidas’ Illuminated docu series that was released Thursday, Feb. 5.
“We ended up having to withdraw support and she heard his heart stop beating,” Eileen Shiffrin said. “That’s a hard thing to go through.”
The episode is filmed mostly at Shiffrin’s house in Colorado, which is filled with pictures of her father. It also features family videos of Shiffrin when she was young, with her parents and early in her skiing career.
For days after Jeff Shiffrin’s death, Shiffrin couldn’t get out of bed, her mother said. She couldn’t eat or drink, and she lost weight.
When did Shiffrin win her first race post-father’s death? – Search
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“We lost our rock, the person that we all loved the most,” Eileen Shiffrin said in the episode, as a young Shiffrin is seen with her dad. “I didn’t think Mikaela would ever ski again. I don’t think she thought she would, either.
“We were constantly looking for signs of Jeff’s presence. She (said), ‘I’m just foggy. I don’t know where I’m going, I don’t really feel like I know what I’m doing,'” Eileen Shiffrin recalled. “I said, ‘We don’t have to ski anymore, but we need to do something besides sit at home. So if you want, we can try skiing and maybe you would go on the hill and feel dad there?'”
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The rest of the 2019-20 season was canceled because of the COVID epidemic. Shiffrin went to Europe that fall for the start of the World Cup circuit, only to injure her back. She didn’t race again until November 2020.
“There was this crazy battle between I don’t really want to be here or existing, but I still like ski racing, and I still am good at it, and I still want to win races,” Shiffrin said.
Shiffrin has spoken often of not having her usual store of energy that had made her so formidable in the second runs of tech races. But that heaviness gradually lifted, each day bringing her a little closer to where she’d been before her father died.
On Dec. 14, 2020, Shiffrin won the giant slalom in Courchevel, France. It was her first win since Jeff Shiffrin’s death.
Shiffrin would win three more times that season, including the combined title at the world championships in Cortina, site of the women’s Alpine races at the 2026 Winter Olympics. She also won a silver in the giant slalom at those worlds, as well as bronzes in the slalom and super-G.
“Winning was just sort of the statement, the proof that, ‘Oh, I’ve got fire. I’m just trying to figure out who I am again,'” Shiffrin said.
The 16-minute episode is a sweet and revealing look at the relationship between Shiffrin and her mother, who has been by her side for her entire career. Shiffrin has often praised her mother, who also was a ski racer when she was younger, for knowing her skiing as well as anyone and being able to identify things others cannot.
“I love feeling like there’s something I still have to offer that only I can give to her. It’s just still magical and special,” Eileen Shiffrin said in the docuseries. “Knowing us, I don’t think we’re going to stop anytime soon.”
Mikaela Shiffrin arrives at her fourth Olympics hardly burdened by the ghosts of Beijing
Mikaela Shiffrin crashes during the second run of the giant slalom at the 2024/2025 Women’s World Cup in Killington, Vermont, November 30, 2024. (Photo: Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
Mikaela Shiffrin’s crash during the second run of the giant slalom at Killington on November 30, 2024, was a significant event in her career. The incident occurred when she missed a gate, flipped, struck a gate, and slid hard into the protective netting, sustaining a deep puncture wound to her abdomen and significant trauma to her oblique muscles.
She required immediate medical attention and underwent surgery to address the injury and related complications. Fortunately, she was evaluated at the hospital and did not sustain any significant injuries to her ligaments or bones. Shiffrin is currently recovering and has not yet determined her return to competition.
Mikaela Shiffrin’s journey toward her 100th World Cup win took an unexpected turn on Saturday when a crash during the second run of the Killington giant slalom sidelined the ski racing legend. But while Shiffrin recovered off the slopes, the U.S. Ski Team delivered one of its strongest collective performances of the season, offering a glimmer of hope and momentum for American skiing.
Shiffrin was on the cusp of winning her 100th World Cup race when disaster struck.
Watch: Mikaela Shiffrin Crashes During Second Giant Slalom Run at Killington
The 29-year-old ski phenom lost her edge and crashed heavily in the Killington giant slalom. She somersaulted and hit two gates before abruptly stopping in the fencing. She asked ski patrol for a sled because she “was in shock, entirely unable to move and worried about internal organ trauma,” she said in the U.S. Ski Team statement. She went by ambulance to the local hospital for evaluation.
Doctors determined that she had had no damage to her ligaments, bones, or internal organs.
She suffered a puncture wound to the right side of her abdomen and severe muscle trauma but did not get stitches for the wound “because it’s too deep and there’s risk of infection,” Shiffrin said in the statement.
“She is pretty sore. Her return to snow is TBD (to be determined) and more information will be forthcoming,” stated the U.S. Ski Team.
Having difficulty walking, Shiffrin skipped Sunday’s slalom and instead cheered for her teammates from her lodging in Killington.
Paula Moltzan and Nina O’Brien both scored career bests, with fifth and sixth, respectively, in the GS on Saturday. And 19-year-old Elizabeth Bocock—in eighth after the first run—collected her first World Cup points by finishing 23rd. Katie Hensien also had a good race, climbing from 21st after the first run to 13th. Here’s how to stream 2024-25 World Cup ski races across Outside TV and beyond.
How the Day Unfolded
On a cold, blustery day, the usually raucous Killington crowd was waiting to see what could be Shiffrin’s 100th win. She skied the first run so flawlessly that it looked like nothing would stop her. With a rare combination of strength, balance, endurance, smarts, and touch for the snow, Shiffrin has rarely DNFed—ski racing lingo for did not finish. In 274 World Cup starts across 13 seasons, she had only DNFed 18 times.
The last time she didn’t finish in a GS? Seven years ago.
So when she came onto Superstar’s steep final pitch on her second run and leaned in, losing her edge and somersaulting into the next gate, the crowd gasped, then sat silently as ski patrol converged on a downed Shiffrin. The crowd cheered as they brought her down in a sled, and Shiffrin raised a hand to wave.
A Home Snow Win
Shiffrin came to Killington hoping to reach the 100-win milestone on home snow. She spent a formative part of her childhood training just 38.4 miles from Killington—at Storrs Hill in New Hampshire. As an 8-year-old, Shiffrin and her older brother Taylor ate SpaghettiOs in the car after school, then trained under the lights. From there, she enrolled at Burke Mountain Academy in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. The crowd was filled with many who knew her, and the Killington Cup was a race she loves.
“I love being here,” she said the night before the GS. “I love the crowd. I love the people. I love how gritty and determined everybody is to pull off the best World Cup race possible and how supportive everybody is. It’s so raw and real and New England.”
She had specifically targeted the Killington GS this year. She wanted to execute her best skiing on this hill, which had bedeviled her in previous races. In six previous Killington Cup GSs, she finished on the podium only three times. Without going into technical details, she called the hill “a nuisance in GS.”
But on the first run of GS, it looked like she had mastered the nuisance. Only Olympic GS champ Sara Hector was within a half-second of her.
Since partnering with the Share Winter Foundation earlier this year, Shiffrin has been skiing for something greater than herself, and the records finally mean something. She has shifted her perspective and sees the record/milestone conversation as an opportunity to bring more attention to the sport—and thus more money to an organization that aims to get more kids on snow.
Now, the 100th World Cup win is indefinitely postponed. Shiffrin still has a chance to celebrate the milestone win on home snow—at Beaver Creek, Colorado, near where she also spent much of her childhood and now owns a home. The women’s World Cup heads to Beaver Creek, Colorado, for speed races on December 14-15. Shiffrin plans to race the super-G on Sunday, Dec. 15. But that race is only two weeks away. Will Shiffrin recover by then?
Mikaela Shiffrin opens up about her severe battle with PTSD after her horrific skiing accident
Helen Storms
May 31, 20256:16 pm EDT
Mikaela Shiffrin is an Olympian and is considered to be the most successful alpine skier in history.
When tackling the slopes, she has always given off an aura of confidence and fearlessness. However, after experiencing a horrific accident in November of 2024, Shiffrin was left with a puncture wound to the abdomen and was unsure if her self-confidence would ever be the same.
In a new interview with Players Tribune, the 30-year-old opened up about that accident and how it left her battling with severe PTSD.
“I didn’t fully comprehend what the mental side was gonna morph into,” she began.
At the time of the accident, Shiffrin was at the FIS World Cup in Killington, Vermont. She ended up losing control and fell, flipping over her skis and crashing into two gates. Her oblique muscle was severely damaged.
“I… most of the winter after the injury, and once we started skiing again and I was returning, it was mostly pretty awful. I did not feel like myself. I felt an insane disconnect between my body and my mind. We went through sort of a diagnosis, like a chart, basically. You kind of almost like check off these boxes, and you check off enough boxes, and it’s like, this is… you do qualify for PTSD,” she explained.
The fact that Shiffrin knew how close her injury was to becoming life-threatening added to her fear of skiing again. Nevertheless, Shiffrin explains that she has continued to work with a therapist while also pushing herself to keep skiing, even when it is difficult. While she recognizes that she has a new reality, she says she knows it’s just “for now.”
Despite the severity of the injury, Shiffrin showed remarkable resilience and made a strong comeback, achieving her historic 100th World Cup win in a slalom race in Sestriere, Italy, on February 23, 2025. As of early 2026, Shiffrin stands at 107 World Cup wins, solidifying her status as the most successful alpine skier in history.
Mikaela Shiffrin won her 100th career World Cup race, taking victory in the slalom by 0.61 seconds in Sestriere, Italy, extending her already record-setting number of World Cup titles into triple digits.
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Mikaela Shiffrin says she questioned returning to skiing amid PTSD after crash – The Athletic
My Battle with PTSD by Mikaela Shiffrin | The Players’ Tribune
Fighting Against Injuries for Comeback, Mikaela Shiffrin Admits to Major Struggles with PSTD
By Disita Sikdar
May 30, 2025 | 3:32 PM EDT
There was no blood curdling scream, no cinematic crash that stopped time. Just a sharp, sudden moment in Vermont that fractured far more than Mikaela Shiffrin’s body. Months later, the decorated American skier wasn’t battling pain or fear. The queen of the slopes, who once moved with the precision of a metronome down icy giants, now found herself paralyzed not by injury, but by something far more haunting. This wasn’t just about healing.
This was about survival.
Shiffrin was diagnosed with PTSD. And she’s not sugarcoating what that means. The crash in Killington during a giant slalom race in November 2024 left her with a puncture wound in her abdomen and major muscle damage. The physical injuries were real, painful, and eventually treatable through surgery. But as her body began to heal, something far more terrifying began to emerge. Shiffrin tried returning to the slopes with her usual determination. But during training, nothing felt right. “I did not feel like myself,” Shiffrin said in an exclusive interview with Players Tribune. “I felt an insane disconnect between my body and my mind,” she added. By the time she underwent evaluation, the diagnosis became clear: PTSD. Fighting Against Injuries for Comeback, Mikaela Shiffrin Admits to Major Struggles with PTSD – Search
“We went through sort of a diagnosis, like a chart basically,” Shiffrin explained. “You kind of almost like check off these boxes and then you check off enough boxes and it’s like… you do qualify for PTSD.” She described trying her hardest to get her body to cooperate, but it wouldn’t respond. “My body’s doing like nothing of what I want it to do,” Shiffrin admitted.
As she peeled back the layers of her experience, Shiffrin began to realize how misunderstood PTSD can be, even for herself. She described it as living behind a foggy film. Like the world was dulled and distant. “Everything’s a little bit darker,” Shiffrin said, comparing it to having “a layer of grease on everything.” Her mind told her it was fine. Her body responded like it was still crashing. The dissonance was crippling.
Her sports psychologist offered a lifeline: exposure. It would take training, again and again, to reconnect her mind with the slopes. “Working through it is exposure,” Shiffrin recalled being told. And slowly, it began to work. By January 2025, she returned to racing. Two months later, she won her 101st World Cup event, a victory that wasn’t just about numbers.
Mikaela Shiffrin on how — and why — Winter Olympics feel different to her now
Mikaela Shiffrin’s comeback isn’t just about medals or even redemption. It’s about ownership. She’s made it clear: PTSD isn’t weakness. It’s real. But she’s not running from it anymore. With Milano Cortina 2026 on the horizon, Shiffrin isn’t just chasing glory. She’s reclaiming herself. And en route to build back her strength, Shiffrin had a strict routine to follow.
Who says Mikaela Shiffrin can’t come back stronger than ever?
Mikaela Shiffrin isn’t just aiming for a comeback. Rather, she’s rebuilding herself from scratch. After a painful “stab wound” injury last November that left her navigating core muscle tearing, the alpine skiing legend is channeling her trademark discipline into every rep, stretch, and breath of her strength routine.
Acknowledging the physical toll of recovery, Shiffrin shared, “This has been an ongoing process.” Now in the critical preparation phase for next season, the 30-year-old is zeroing in on the foundation of her athleticism. Her strategy? Reinforce her core, revive coordination, and mobilize her spine—segment by segment. “When I think about bulletproofing my body, I think about working from the ground up, building a strong foundation,” she explained. Shiffrin continued, “Then, the sky’s the limit.”
That foundation begins with back-to-basics mobility work, foam rolling the thoracic and lumbar spine, before transitioning into band-assisted cat-cow stretches and core activation. But it’s her strength training where the real rebuilding begins. Crossover lateral step-ups with weight, pull-ups, and hanging side oblique flexion exercises dominate her program. The oblique work, she reveals, has been a cornerstone of her healing journey. “This was really important for me after my injury… to get my core connection back and to work through the oblique muscle tearing,” Shiffrin stated. With each session, she’s not just training to compete, but is training to reclaim her power.
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