Shiffrin set for World Cup skiing return at Courchevel

AUSTRIA: Mikaela Shiffrin, who injured her abdomen in a fall at the end of November, said Thursday that she would be returning to the World Cup at the Courchevel slalom on January 30.

“Courchevel 30/01... See you soon,” the American wrote on Instagram after announcing on NBC that she would be “heading over to Europe in the next couple days to race (her) first World Cup back”.

Shiffrin underwent surgery last month after suffering what she described as a “stab wound” after crashing in the giant slalom at Killington, Vermont, on November 30. Chasing her 100th World Cup victory, she hit a gate and tumbled through another before sliding into the catch fencing and was taken from the hill on a sled and subsequently to hospital.

“It´s been a little bit uncertain whether I could even return this season, but I´ve been able to get on snow, I´ve been able to train a little bit the past week or so,” Shiffrin said on NBC´s “Today” programme.

“I´m actually going to be heading over to Europe in the next couple of days.” Her planned return comes just a few days before the start of the World Championships in Austria. “I wouldn´t say (I´m) 100 percent. I think we´re going to be dealing with the remnants of this injury throughout the rest of the season, but it´s not painful,” said the 29-year-old Shiffrin.

“I´m in a really good place physically,” she added. “The next step is racing. The recovery is not really over but I´m strong enough to get back in the start gate.” In 2023, Shiffrin broke Ingemar Stenmark´s record of 86 World Cup wins, a mark once considered unassailable. Compatriot Lindsey Vonn, who has just returned to the World Cup circuit aged 40 after a six-year ´retirement´, has the second-most alpine World Cup wins by a woman with 82.