Star Athlete Shiffrin Discusses Overwhelming Lack of Steering Control
Michel Shiffrin, skiing's titan, grappled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following a harrowing fall in Killington in November 2024. Despite incurring severe injuries, she courageously reclaimed her position towards the end of the season, having weathered a series of setbacks in the interim. "I was not my usual self," Shiffrin admitted.
Prominent athlete, Mikaela Shiffrin, discovered she had PTSD after her fall episode in Killington, which left her feeling as if she had lost control of her body. Reflecting on the ordeal, she confessed in an article for The Players' Tribune, "It felt like I had lost control of my body." Once her injuries had healed, she reported feeling physically and mentally fit, but still not quite like herself. Shiffrin went on to admit that she grappled with dark thoughts and feelings of vulnerability, acknowledging that this was "definitely scary." At times, she questioned whether she would ever take to the slopes again. It was her therapist who first suspected PTSD.
The incident in Killington was not Shiffrin's only hurdle; her perilous stab wound in her abdomen was part of a series of hardships. Other challenges included a fatal accident involving her father in 2020, an accident that left her partner, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, severely injured in Wengen in January 2024, and the tumultuous events in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 2024.
In an effort to conquer her PTSD, Shiffrin persisted with her training. By consistently subjecting herself to racing situations, she gradually began to trust that most of the time, things would be safe. Shiffrin's efforts paid off when, after her return to the competition, she clinched her 100th and 101st World Cup victories and secured a gold medal in the team combination at the World Championships in Saalbach. Now, she affirmed, "I feel like myself again."
[Excluding unrelated background details for brevity]
Sources: ntv.de, sue/sid
- Mikaela Shiffrin, despite her PTSD diagnosis following a fall in Killington, continued to challenge herself in the world of sports and health-and-wellness, including science, fitness-and-exercise, mental-health, and nutrition.
- Shiffrin's PTSD symptoms included feelings of vulnerability and loss of control, much like the fear one might experience during sports-analysis or competition situations.
- To overcome her PTSD, Shiffrin used sports as a form of therapy, consistently exposing herself to racing environments to rebuild her trust in safety.
- With her hard-earned victories in both the World Cup and World Championships, Mikaela Shiffrin now feels like she has regained her sense of self and is not held back by her past struggles.
