After crashing during Friday’s women’s downhill competition in Cortina d’Ampezzo, American skier Mikaela Shiffrin was transported via helicopter to the hospital.
Halfway through her run, the 28-year-old lost control and crashed into the nets that surrounded the Italian hill.
Shiffrin was appreciative; scans seemed to indicate that the knee ligaments “seem intact,” thus on the outside, things were “not worse.”
“Thank you everyone for your support and well wishes,” she said. “At this point I’m just taking it day by day.”
Stephanie Venier, 30, of Austria, won the downhill race on Friday to record her second World Cup triumph.
With 95 race victories, Shiffrin currently holds the record for most World Cup victories.
“I’ll share more information or updates as I know more,” she continued on Instagram. I’m grateful it’s not worse, but right now I’m pretty sore.
“I will not be skiing at Kronplatz or for the remainder of this weekend. Beyond that, it’s difficult to say at this time. I’ll need a few days to discuss everything with my team and gauge how things are feeling overall. I appreciate you everyone.”
Shiffrin will continue to be evaluated, according to the US Ski & Snowboard Team, but her left knee’s anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments “seem intact” earlier on Friday.
“Mikaela Shiffrin is being assessed for a left leg injury after being transported by ambulance to the clinic in Cortina. At first glance, it appears that the PCL and ACL are undamaged. More information to follow,” the team wrote.external
Before she was helicoptered out of the race course, it was stopped for over twenty minutes.
Days prior to the collision, Shiffrin achieved a historic 150th podium of her career with a slalom victory in Jasna, Slovakia, bringing her record of World Cup victories to 95.
It was the first competition following the season-ending knee injury suffered by Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, the Olympic slalom champion and Shiffrin’s closest competitor.