Skier Shiffrin Battled PTSD during recovery from Killington crash accident
Mikaela Shiffrin, a twice Olympic champion skier, has disclosed her battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stemming from two severe accidents. The incidents occurred at the Killington ski resort in Vermont in November 2024 and another in Cortina, Italy, earlier that year.
During the Killington crash, Shiffrin sustained a puncture wound in her abdomen and considerable muscle damage. Although she concluded her season in 2025 with a record-breaking 101st World Cup win, she revealed in a Players' Tribune article on Friday that these incidents had left psychological scars.
Shiffrin explained that the consecutive crashes might have exacerbated each other, as consulting with her therapist had led her to realize. The traumatic events from the past could inadvertently affect her response to new traumatic events, she said.
Shiffrin lost her father unexpectedly in an accident in 2020, an event she believes could have added weight to her emotional distress following the crashes. Reflecting on the incidents, she stated that they may have created an opportune environment for PTSD to manifest.
"Perhaps the crash with the puncture wound was something of a perfect storm for PTSD to take hold," Shiffrin wrote. "But who knows, really. With all this, there's just so much nuance, and so much that we don't know for certain."
Adored by American fans for her upbeat attitude and resilience, Shiffrin acknowledged that returning to the starting gate has been instrumental in her recovery. "The process of going up the mountain and doing the thing I know how to do, again and again, has helped the most," she wrote. Regaining her confidence required reminding herself repeatedly that most of the time, she would not encounter any severe incidents while training or racing.
After addressing her mental health, Shiffrin felt more like herself. "I just needed to keep reminding myself – proving to myself, really – that the vast majority of times when I am training or racing ... nothing terrible happens. The visions and images I kept seeing slowly subsided."
In January 2025, Shiffrin made her competitive comeback in Courchevel, France, finishing 10th in a slalom event. Triumphantly, she went on to set a record with her 156th career World Cup podium in March 2025 in Åre, Sweden. This race, she felt, allowed her to rediscover emotions she had battled to connect with since the crashes, symbolizing a vital moment in her recovery.
Shiffrin continues to be a prominent figure in alpine skiing, aiming to compete in the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games, in the hope of expanding her Olympic medal collection. Her journey highlights the hurdles elite athletes face with mental health issues and demonstrates the significance of addressing mental recovery in tandem with physical healing.
Science and health-and-wellness interventions, like therapies-and-treatments for mental health, played a crucial role in Mikaela Shiffrin's recovery from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following severe skiing accidents. As she noted, consulting with her therapist helped her understand how consecutive traumatic events could impact her response to new traumas, and dealing with her mental health allowed her to rediscover the emotions she had lost in the crashes.
