Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin Taken by Ambulance After Crash During Downhill Ski Competition
The US Ski & Snowboard Team said Shiffrin's ACL and PCL "seem intact" after initial analysis
Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin was taken by ambulance to a clinic in Italy for a leg injury
The US Ski & Snowboard Team said her ACL and PCL "seem intact" after analysis
Shiffrin thanked fans for their support in a post on social media after the injury
Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin was taken to a clinic by ambulance from a skiing event in Italy following a crash on the slope.
On Friday, the US Ski & Snowboard Team said in a statement that Shiffrin, 28, was evaluated for a left leg injury at a local clinic in Cortina d’Ampezzo. According to the post on X (formerly Twitter), Shiffrin's ACL and PCL "seem intact" after an initial analysis.
The US Ski Team said it will provide "further details" as they come.
The crash occurred midway through Shiffrin's run on the slope, when the two-time gold medalist lost control and crashed into surrounding nets, according to CNN.
The outlet reported that Shiffrin was seen limping and relying on her skis to support her weight as medical officials attended to her after the crash.
Shiffrin — who clinched her 87th victory last March, breaking Ingemar Stenmark record of 86 total wins — took to X to let fans know that she's in good spirits amid the injury.
"Thank you all for your support," Shiffrin wrote, along with resharing the US Ski Team's statement.
Related: Mikaela Shiffrin Opens Up About Overcoming Her Racing Anxiety and Feeling ‘Destined to Fail’
Despite the incident during Friday's competition, Shiffrin said she's still smiling. Adding onto her post on X, Shiffrin wrote, "But oh my god…looking at the results for our team makes me smile so much," and included the clapping hands and teary-eyed smiley face emoji.
Thank you all for your support 🙏❤️
(But oh my god…looking at the results for our team makes me smile so much!!🥹👏) https://t.co/NX9qBVS8uK— Mikaela Shiffrin (@MikaelaShiffrin) January 26, 2024
One day before Shiffrin's crash, she told fans she was "so happy to be back" at the Cortina d’Ampezzo ski tournament, but said she was in "a little bit of shock" the day prior due to "being back on DH [downhill] skis," in a post on X.
"I love it here…although yesterday was a little bit of a shock to the system being back on DH skis, and I had a couple 'scary' moments on the course (probably didn’t look as scary because I’m a catastrophizer, hah who’s with meee?!)," she wrote.
Related: Mikaela Shiffrin Is Shocked by Her Record-Breaking 87 Wins: 'I Didn't Believe It Was Possible'
Despite her concern, Shiffrin said she was "Looking forward to cleaning it up tomorrow for race 1 tomorrow," before the competition.
After she cinched her 87th victory in the slalom event in Âre, Sweden in March, breaking Ingemar Stenmark's 86 total wins that he secured in 1989, Shiffrin told PEOPLE the accomplishment hadn't yet sunk in. "I don't know how people process things that are so big," Shiffrin said after the win.
To her, the 87 wins are "just kind of a really big number," the skiing champion said at the time. "As cool as it is to say that I've won 87 World Cup races, it's almost meaningless. It doesn't say anything about the journey I've been on it. It just doesn't say anything about who I am as a person."
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Looking back on the last 10 years of her career, she doesn't think a number does justice to her process.
"I know everything that I've experienced in life and since I started racing World Cup, I know the whole process and everything that's gone into it, and that really can't be summed up with a number," Shiffrin told PEOPLE.
More important to Shiffrin than "resetting" records, is resetting what she thought was possible. "I think it's more that it was something we all thought was not possible in ski racing," she said. "None of us, myself included, probably more than anyone else, really didn't believe that was ever going to happen."
"I didn't believe it was possible. I still believe it shouldn't have happened, and I don't understand why it did, besides the fact that I've skied well enough for 87 races to win it. But why me, why now, why period, I don't really have an answer for any of those things."
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