Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin is helped off the course by medics after a scary crash at the World Cup in Italy on Friday.
The Olympian was one of several competitors who crashed on the Olympia delle Tofane course after she lost control while landing a jump.
Her arms flailed as she landed in a soft patch of snow before slamming into the side net at high speed.
According to coach Paul Kristofic, Shiffrin is OK after the tumble, which seemingly did not result in any ligament damage.
“She’s actually quite good,” the U.S. team coach said, telling the The Associated Press, “She’s positive and in a certain way relieved. Because it could have been worse. But she’s pretty sore, as you are for most speed crashes. But she was quite upbeat about things.”
Shiffrin was helped off after being attended to by medics, unable to put weight on her left leg.
A helicopter was seen going up the mountain after Shiffrin’s crash, but it wasn’t clear if Shiffrin was airlifted away, according to the Associated Press.
The race — won by Austria’s Stephanie Venier — was delayed more than 20 minutes as the 28-year-old was taken to the hospital for further care.
“Mikaela Shiffrin was taken by ambulance to the clinic in Cortina and is being evaluated for a left leg injury,” the US team said, adding that, “initial analysis shows the ACL and PCL seem intact.”
Shiffrin will not race again this weekend and it’s unclear when she will return.
She appeared to be in good spirits after seeing the American team’s results with Jacqueline Wiles, Lauren Macuga and Isabella Wright all finishing in the top-20.
“Thank you all for your support,” Shiffrin wrote on X. “But oh my god…looking at the results for our team makes me smile so much!!”
Her crash came a day after she admitted to having a couple of “scary” moments on the course for her second race of the season.
“So happy to be back in @cortinaSkiWcup because I love it here,” she wrote on X, “although yesterday was a little bit of a shock to the system being back on DH skis, and I had a couple ‘scary’ moments on the course (probably didn’t look as scary as it felt as I was running, because I’m a catastrophizer, hah who’s with meee?!). Looking forward to cleaning it up tomorrow for race 1 tomorrow!”
The 95-time winner was not the lone skier to struggle on the Italian course set to be used in the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Former overall champion Federica Brignone, Olympic champion Corinne Suter and two-time Olympic champ Michelle Gisin all also crashed and appeared to avoid serious injury.
Austria’s Stephanie Venier won the race at Italian resort of Cortina d’Ampezzo with a time of 1:33.06, finishing 0.39 ahead of Switzerland’s Laura Gut-Behrami.
