Mikaela Shiffrin returns to competitive skiing in Are this weekend, six weeks after a heavy crash and with her thoughts for boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde who survived a “life or death” fall while racing.
Shiffrin, who turns 29 next week, was leading the overall World Cup standings before her crash at the end of January on the Olympia delle Tofane course, which will be used for the 2026 Olympics.
Since then she has had to watch as Lara Gut-Behrami overhauled her total and built up a lead. Shiffrin is now third in the overall standings, 385 points behind the Swiss, and concedes that her hopes of a sixth overall World Cup title are over.
Two weeks before her crash, Shiffrin had watched on television as her boyfriend, Norwegian skier Aleksander Aamodt Kilde hurtled into the netting at 120km/h in Wengen, sustaining a bad cut and nerve damage to his right calf and two torn ligaments with a severe laceration in his dislocated right shoulder.
