Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin Taken by Ambulance After Crash During Downhill Ski Competition

• Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin was transported by ambulance to a clinic in Italy due to a leg injury
• The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team said her ACL and PCL “appear intact” after analysis
• In a post on social media, Shiffrin thanked fans for their support after the injury

Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin was taken to the clinic by ambulance from a ski competition in Italy after an accident on the slopes.

On Friday, the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team said ua statement that Shiffrin, 28, was evaluated for a left leg injury at a local clinic in Cortina d’Ampezzo. According to a post on X (formerly Twitter), Shiffrin’s ACL and PCL “appear intact” after initial analysis.

The U.S. Ski Team said it would provide “additional details” as they come.

The accident happened in the middle of Shiffrin’s downhill run, when the two-time gold medalist lost control and crashed into the surrounding netting, according to CNN.

Media reported that Shiffrin was seen limping and leaning on her skis to support her weight as medical officials attended to her after the crash.

A helicopter flies to evacuate Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States after she crashed during the women’s alpine skiing World Cup downhill race in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. Shiffrin crashed into safety nets after losing control at landing a jump during the Women’s World Cup downhill on Friday.

AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati

Shiffrin — who picked up her 87th win last March, breaking Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 total wins — took to the X to let fans know she was in good spirits following her injury.

“Thank you all for your support,” Shiffrin wrote, re-sharing the US Ski Team’s statement.

Mikaela Shiffrin talks about overcoming her race anxiety and feeling ‘destined to fail’

Despite the incident during Friday’s competition, Shiffrin said she was still smiling. Adding to her post on X, Shiffrin wrote, “But oh my gosh…looking at our team’s results makes me smile so much,” and included clapping hands and a teary-eyed smiley face emoji.

The day before Shiffrin’s accident, she told fans she was “so happy to be back” at the Cortina d’Ampezzo ski event, but said she was in “a bit of shock” the day before about “going back to DH [downhill] skis”, in a post on X.

“I love it here…even though it was a bit of a shock to the system yesterday to be back on DH skis and I had a few ‘scary’ moments on the trail (probably didn’t look so bad because I’m a catastrophist haha ​​who’s with meee ?!),” she wrote.

Mikaela Shiffrin shocked by her record 87 wins: ‘I didn’t believe it was possible’

Despite her concerns, Shiffrin said she was “looking forward to getting it cleaned up tomorrow for Race 1 tomorrow,” before the competition.

After claiming her 87th slalom victory in Âre, Sweden, in March, surpassing Ingemar Stenmark’s 1989 total of 86 wins, Shiffrin told PEOPLE that the accomplishment is still unclear. “I don’t know how people process things that are that big,” Shiffrin said after the win.

Mikaela Shiffrin. Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images

For her, 87 victories is “a really big number”, the skiing champion said at the time. “As cool as it is to say I’ve won 87 World Cup races, it’s almost meaningless. It doesn’t say anything about the journey I’ve been on. It just doesn’t say anything about who I am as a person.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Looking back on the last 10 years of her career, she doesn’t think the number does justice to her process.

“I know everything that I’ve experienced in my life and since I started participating in the World Cup, I know the whole process and everything that went into it, and it really can’t be summed up in a number,” Shiffrin told PEOPLE.

For Shiffrin, more important than “breaking” the record is resetting what she thought was possible. “I think it’s more something that we all thought was not possible in ski racing,” she said. “None of us, including me, probably more than anyone else, really believed it would ever happen.”

“I didn’t believe it was possible. I still believe it shouldn’t have happened and I don’t understand why it happened, other than the fact that I skied well enough for 87 races to win it. But why me, why now, why period, I don’t really have an answer to none of those things.”

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education