USA Olympic hero Mikaela Shiffrin opens up on PTSD after suffering gruesome injuries in traumatic crash

Olympic hero Mikaela Shiffrin has opened up on the traumatic injuries she sustained during her horror crash last year that has left her suffering with PTSD even months later. 

The Team USA skier, 30, had to be stretchered off the slopes in Vermont after doing a flip and careening into the protective barriers during the Killington Cup on November 30, 2024.  

Shiffrin, who was chasing her 100th World Cup win, had been leading before she lost control near the finish line, slid into a gate, flipped head over skis, and collided with another gate before stopping in protective fencing.

She suffered a five-centimeter puncture wound to her hip area, which she has now revealed narrowly avoided her colon by one millimeter. 

But the skiing star admitted the crash took more than a physical toll, as she detailed the mental health struggles she's had to endure over the past seven months.

'It's just been a process to recover from that physically, and mentally, more-so than I maybe expected,' Shiffrin told People. 'I was having a lot of actual PTSD symptoms.'

*WARNING - GRAPHIC CONTENT BELOW* 

She opened up on the mental health woes, revealing the symptoms included 'flashbacks' and 'intrusive thoughts that were pretty challenging,' especially as she prepared for her return to the slopes in January. 

Shiffrin previously explained that she had been 'impaled' during the scary incident when she shared a snap of her bruised hips and pelvis, and even a video of the hole in her side as it was tended to by a nurse at the hospital, with her followers in December. 

However, even months later, Shiffrin admitted that she still isn't entirely certain how the crash occurred. 

'That's the million-dollar question,' she told People. 'I crashed into a gate, and we think that maybe it was either impact or a portion of some part of the gate somehow managed to create the effect of a stab wound and it went right in here.'

When the incident occurred, Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS and charging after her 100th World Cup win. She was within sight of the finish line, five gates onto Killington's steep finish pitch, when she lost the grip on her outside ski.

She hit a gate and did a somersault before sliding into another gate. The fencing slowed her momentum as she came to an abrupt stop.

Shiffrin stayed down on the edge of the course for quite some time as the ski patrol attended to her. She was taken off the hill on a sled and waved to the cheering crowd.

The American has not suffered as many devastating injuries as many ski racers have. In her 14-year career, she has only had to rehab two injuries that happened on the hill: a torn medial collateral ligament and bone bruising in her right knee in December 2015 and a sprained MCL and tibiofibular ligament in her left knee after a downhill crash in January 2024. 

Neither knee injury required surgery and both times Shiffrin was back to racing within two months.

Shiffrin went on to secure her historic 100th World Cup win on the slopes of Sestriere in February following her comeback. She took that tally to 101 in March when she clinched another victory at the Sun Valley Finals.   

To date, she has earned five overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals - along with a silver - and seven world championships.

She's chasing another accolade to add to her tally as she prepares for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics in February.