The American Mikaela Shiffrin, the current great star of alpine skiing, suffered a spectacular fall this Saturday when she was already close to her 100th victory in the World Cup, a feat never achieved until now.
Shiffrin, holder of the absolute record with 99 wins, was very close to setting this new milestone in her extraordinary career in front of her fans in the giant slalom in Killington (northeastern United States).
The local star was the fastest in the first race but made a mistake in the second that led her to go off the course and collapse in the snow, leaving the victory in the hands of the Swede Sara Hector.
Shiffrin received medical attention before being sledded off the track and gestured to her audience, who had gone from disappointment at the missed mark to concern for her physical condition.
From the clinic, the double Olympic champion sent a message of calm to her fans but confirmed that she will not be able to break the centenary mark in the slalom that will also be held this Sunday in Killington.
“There’s really not much to worry about right now,” Shiffrin said in a recorded video while she was treated at the medical center and published on the social network X.
«I just can’t move. I have a good abrasion” and “something scratched me,” the skier explained, pointing to an area near her left hip.
«I’m so sorry I scared everyone. It seems that all the results so far are clean,” he confirmed. «I wish my teammates good luck tomorrow. “I will be cheering them on from the side of the track.”
At the moment it is unknown when he will be able to look for the mark again since, after Sunday’s test in Killington, two giant slaloms were scheduled in Tremblant (Canada) next weekend but were canceled due to lack of snow.
At 29 years old, Shiffrin has a wide lead at the top of World Cup wins. At the moment she has 13 more victories than the most successful skier, the Swede Ingemar Stenmark (86), and 17 more than her compatriot Lindsey Vonn, who has the second best female record (82).
With her consecutive victories in Levi (Finland) and Gurgl (Austria), Shiffrin had earned the opportunity to celebrate her hundredth victory in Killington, near the Burke Mountain academy where she trained in her youth.
The American, who has won six slaloms in Killington but never a giant slalom, was received with enthusiasm by the public despite the icy wind that reigned in the station, with a maximum temperature of -2º Celsius.
The stage was set for the big celebration after Shiffrin won the first heat and reached the final part of the second, leading Hector by 17 hundredths of a second.
But the American became unbalanced on a right-hand bend, before the slope became steeper, and another subsequent mistake took her into the safety nets.
Shiffrin’s falls are very rare as she has only retired 21 times in 274 World Cup appearances since her debut in 2011.
In this way, it was Sara Hector, Olympic champion at the Beijing 2022 Games, who celebrated her sixth World Cup victory. Along with the Swede, the Croatian Zrinka Ljutic and the Swiss Camille Rast completed the podium in Killington.
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