JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
The world's most accomplished alpine ski racer has officially qualified for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Mikaela Shiffrin won her 104th World Cup ski race yesterday. It's a victory that came exactly one year after a freak accident sidelined her for months and left her with PTSD. NPR's Becky Sullivan has the story.
BECKY SULLIVAN, BYLINE: It was in Killington, Vermont, this time last year when Mikaela Shiffrin was flying down the hill in a giant slalom race. She crashed hard, lost control of her right ski and collided first with a slalom gate, then the fence.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #1: Right there, this is where she can bring back, and did bring back, time. Oh, no.
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #2: Oh, no. Oh, no.
SULLIVAN: In the ambulance, first responders cut off her racing suit to find blood everywhere on her midsection. Something had punctured her torso, piercing through multiple layers of muscle. To this day, she's still not sure what it was. Maybe the slalom gate, maybe her ski pole. It took months for her muscles to heal. Then, when she was able to ski again, she realized she had something else to work through - PTSD - especially with giant slalom.
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MIKAELA SHIFFRIN: The sort of expectation that comes with having won a lot of races is that you're always ready to win races. And when that's not the case, it can be really stressful and it can be really lonely.
SULLIVAN: Shiffrin has won more World Cup races than any other skier ever, by far, and two Olympic gold medals. Yet she's only 30 years old, and there's still plenty left to accomplish, including redemption at the upcoming Olympics, a makeup for the 2022 Games in Beijing, where she entered all four individual alpine disciplines, from the tight, technical slalom to the lightning-fast downhill and super-G. But in a stunning disappointment, she came away empty-handed. Now she has narrowed her focus. Yet to reach her peak again, she says, means finding a way to get right with GS.
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SHIFFRIN: It's very hard to find the balance of rhythm and timing and risk with giant slalom. But when my giant slalom is on, I feel that I can get to my highest level of slalom faster and a higher level of super-G faster.
SULLIVAN: Shiffrin is the queen of slalom. The focus and agility needed to speed through the tight turns have long been her greatest strengths. Giant slalom has bigger turns and higher speeds and reminders of her crash.
(CHEERING)
SULLIVAN: This weekend, Shiffrin raced at Copper Mountain, Colorado, just about half an hour from her own home. Up first was the giant slalom.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Mikaela - it's going to be close into the...
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SULLIVAN: Her first run was slow, her second run smoother for a modest 14th place finish. Her teammates Paula Moltzan and Nina O'Brien saw it differently. Here's Moltzan.
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PAULA MOLTZAN: She just handles everything with such grace. It's pretty inspiring. Nina and I were standing here watching and being like, damn, that's good skiing (laughter).
SULLIVAN: Then, Sunday in the slalom, Shiffrin was as good as ever. She hasn't lost a slalom race yet this season. Yesterday, she dominated.
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UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER #3: The best skier ever. Well, Mikaela Shiffrin, the master. Let her hear you.
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SULLIVAN: Shiffrin finished more than a second and a half ahead of the rest of the field. Yet afterwards, she fessed up. The anniversary of her crash had made her nervous all weekend long.
SHIFFRIN: Yesterday was some mix of relief and excitement, not just because of the injury itself, but because of the rest of the season last year, how challenging it was. To be in a place where I can, like, adjust my skiing and make progress in a race, in a GS, was - that was just a cool feeling yesterday.
SULLIVAN: Fourteenth place is, of course, not where she ultimately wants to be, but she said it's progress and a whole lot better than where she was this time last year.
SHIFFRIN: Here we are. We're walking away from the, you know, the U.S. weekend, and I do not have a puncture wound at this point. And that is just super nice. I cannot tell you (laughter).
SULLIVAN: The Winter Olympics are just two months away. But for an hour on this snowy Sunday afternoon in her home state of Colorado, there was time to sign autographs.
UNIDENTIFIED FAN: Mikaela, can I get a photo, please?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FAN: A signed photo for Jack Black (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Oh, hell yeah? Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED FAN: Thank you so much.
SULLIVAN: And a rare night of sleeping in her own bed. Becky Sullivan, NPR News, Copper Mountain, Colorado.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA'S PERFORMANCE OF QUEEN'S "WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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