BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin is recovering after undergoing abdominal surgery on Thursday night to clean out a puncture wound she received in a giant slalom crash two weeks ago.
Shiffrin posted an update Saturday on Instagram while her teammates took on the Birds of Prey course in a women's downhill race at Beaver Creek. She added in her post: “Biggest bummer right now is that I can’t get up to the finish to watch my teammates race @bcworldcup in person. But I’m watching and cheering on TV!”
There's no timetable for Shiffrin's return to racing after suffering bruises and the deep puncture to her hip area — but no ligament or bone damage — during a crash on Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont. She was leading after the first run of the GS as she chased after her 100th World Cup win.
With the finish line in sight on her second run, she leaned into the hill, lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping head over skis. She slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. Shiffrin, who has more wins than any Alpine ski racer in the history of the sport, was taken down on a sled.
She's been resting and mending at home in nearby Edwards, Colorado.
The 29-year-old Shiffrin explained in her post Saturday that her surgery was unexpected and came “after feeling a bit under the weather." She's been using a wound vacuum to keep the puncture clean.
“Turns out I had a little cavity deeper than the wound tract that was filled with old hematoma and wasn’t properly draining with wound vac or normal packing,” Shiffrin wrote. “So we went in to wash it out and close it with sutures.
Shiffrin has earned five overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals — along with a silver — and seven world championships.
She passed Lindsey Vonn’s women’s mark of 82 World Cup victories on Jan. 24, 2023, during a giant slalom in Italy. That March, Shiffrin broke Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark’s Alpine mark for most World Cup wins when she captured her 87th career race. ___
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Pat Graham, The Associated Press
