Mikaela Shiffrin: 'I feel like myself again' after crash PTSD - ESPN

Two-time Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin finally feels «like myself again» after recovering from a ski racing crash last season and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder.

Shiffrin described in an essay for The Players' Tribune released Friday the physical and mental hurdles she needed to clear after her serious spill during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont, on Nov. 30. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin's side and caused severe damage to her oblique muscles.

«Everyone knows what it feels like to have a bad cough. But PTSD… it's not like that,» the 30-year-old from Edwards, Colorado, wrote. «It comes in all shapes and sizes. Everyone experiences it in their own way, and no two cases are exactly alike.»

In November, Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the giant slalom and had the finish line in sight on her final run when she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping over her skis. The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing.

To this day, she doesn't know what led to the puncture wound, only that it was «a millimeter from pretty catastrophic,» she told The Associated Press.

Shiffrin wrote in The Players' Tribune that it was «difficult to explain what the pain felt like. But the closest I can get would probably be, it was like… not only was there a knife stabbing me, but the knife was actually still inside of me.»

In late January, Shiffrin returned to the World Cup circuit. The giant slalom, though, remained a source of anxiety, and she skipped the event at world championships.

Ever so steadily, she is working on overcoming the mental trauma surrounding the giant slalom as she gears up for the 2026