Shiffrin dealing with PTSD, won't defend title at skiing worlds - ESPN

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — Mikaela Shiffrin says she is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder following a crash in November and will not defend her gold medal in giant slalom at the Alpine skiing world championships.

The American holder of a record 99 World Cup wins suffered a deep puncture wound when she fell in a giant slalom race on Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont, causing severe trauma to her oblique muscles.

«I'm mentally blocked in being able to get to the next level of pace and speed and putting power into the turns,» Shiffrin said in an audio message shared with The Associated Press on Monday. «And that kind of mental, psychological like PTSD-esque struggle is more than I anticipated.

»I figured once we touched ground in Europe and we got a chance to get some repetitive training days, I would be able to improve step by step and sort of the passion and the longing for racing was going to outweigh any fear that I had," she added.

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