Mikaela Shiffrin rules out Andorra return and addresses ‘staggering’ number of injuries – ‘It’s really too much’

Mikaela Shiffrin has confirmed she won’t be fit in time to race in the women’s World Cup slalom and giant slalom races in Soldeu, Andorra on February 10 and 11 as she continues her recovery from a knee injury.

The American, who tops the overall standings, crashed in the downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo at the end of January, which sparked fears her season could be over.

However, the damage wasn’t as bad as initially feared, although she hasn’t been able to return to action since.

“Most people already know some bits about it [the injury] but yeah, there was no major ligament damage,” she said. “The structure within the joint of my knee looks good.

“So basically, what we’re managing is an MCL sprain. A sprain of the tibial fibular ligament as well as the bone bruise that I already had from Finland.

“I just took a ton of stress, ton of impact to my knee and to my whole leg when I crashed and it’s a sprain essentially. But the great news was that everything was structurally intact and there’s just a cellular healing timeline that we have to follow and try to be patient.

“There’s different phases of this recovery process and the first phase is just giving the tissues time to repair. I’m sort of through that process and then it’s rehab [and] recovery.

“And then the next phase would be reconditioning and then the next phase after that is performance. I’m somewhere in the rehab and recovery and more towards the reconditioning phase now.

“We’re trying to reintroduce different kinds of loads, different stimulus in the gym but the tissues still need time to adapt to that conditioning.

“That’s where we are right now.”

As for the timeline of her return, she added: “Most everything is moving in a very positive direction but I can’t really say a specific time when I am going to return to race.

“Besides that, I won’t be in Andorra racing. It takes a little bit of time and I just really want to do this right.

“Of course, there’s a lot at stake this season and I feel that, but I also feel like the next few seasons there just a lot of opportunity.

“There’s a lot of important racing coming up in the next few seasons and I wanna be firing on all cylinders for those.”

Shiffrin also addressed the concern around the frequency and severity of injuries this season. Prior to her own crash, Petra Vlhova suffered a season-ending knee injury on home snow in Jasna, Slovakia, while Aleksander Aamodt Kilde’s horror incident left him hoping he would just be able to walk again.

In a social media post, Shiffrin described the growing number of stricken athletes as “staggering” and called into question the race calendar and demands placed on elite-level skiiers, especially those who compete in multiple disciplines.

“I just want to address the number of injuries there have been lately, and send my best to all of those who are currently sidelined (including Sofia Goggia, most recently),” Shiffrin wrote.

“Yes, this is ski racing, and yes – we choose to take the risk every time we push from the start gate. That said, the amount of injuries (especially among the top athletes) this year has been staggering.

“A lot has been said about it, and I absolutely agree with those who have asked that we take a better look at the demands on top athletes…both from a race calendar perspective as well as the schedule with evening programmes.

“It’s pretty hard to put into words what the actual demands are like for athletes who are in the top 15 in multiple disciplines and consistently on the podium.

“As Aleks [Aamodt Kilde] recently mentioned, on top of the race calendar in itself, with post-race media and awards going well into the afternoon, then having full evening programme (during the only 60-90 minutes of the weekend where we might otherwise be able to eat or get any recovery time) on multiple nights is a lot.

“It’s really too much. I absolutely believe that fatigue at this point in the season plays a role in the injuries we have seen lately, including my own.”