Mikaela Shiffrin is set to return to the Alpine Ski World Cup on Thursday, Jan. 30, in Courchevel, France, for what will be her first professional race since sustaining a puncture wound to her abdomen in a fall back in November.
The 99-time World Cup race winner revealed she’d be back on the slopes during an appearance on the Today show on Thursday, Jan. 23.
“It’s been a little bit uncertain whether I could even return this season, but I’ve been able to get on snow, I’ve been able to train a little bit these past week or so and I’m actually going to be heading over to Europe in the next couple of days,” Shiffrin explained. “I’m back!”
She went on to explain that she’s still recovering from the Nov. 30-fall, which left her with a 7-centimeter-deep puncture wound into her oblique and led to an unexpected surgery in December.
The 29-year-old athlete was competing for her 100th World Cup win in Vermont when she tumbled through two gates before crashing into a fence. Shortly after the accident, Shiffrin posted a video update to X thanking her fans for their support and revealing that “something stabbed me” during her crash.
“I wouldn’t say 100%,” she told Today‘s Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin of how she’s feeling, noting that the recovery process as been “grueling” over the past two months. “I think we’re going to be dealing with sort of the remnants of this injury throughout the rest of this season. But it’s not painful — my muscles are working again. I’ve been able to get my strength built back up, so I’m in a really good place physically.”
“The load of skiing is so high, you have to sort of work your way into it,” she added.
Asked when she made the call to return, Shiffrin said she only made the decision on Monday after training on giant slalom (GS) skis again. “I was worried about how that would go because this crash happened during GS and the implications of getting back into GS start, I just wasn’t sure how that was going to feel,” Shiffrin admitted. “But it felt pretty good.”
“The next step is racing; that’s the next step of this recovery,” she said. “So the recovery is not really over, but I’m strong enough to get back in the start gate. So that’s the next phase.”
“It takes a lot of repetition — and of course, in a season where we weren’t sure if I would be able to truly recover in time to return this season, and then every step of the way I’ve been able to make progress fairly quickly,” Shiffrin continued. “So when we fast forward to where we are now, it’s kind of, trying to just get as much repetition and gates as possible.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Next week’s World Cup race in Courchevel is the last before the World Championships in Saalbach, Austria, from Feb. 4-16.
And despite her success in the sport so far, Shiffrin told Today that she’s feeling the pressure.
“I haven’t really skied for the past 7 weeks, so I’m coming back into competition with the best athletes in the world with the World Cup athletes and trying to hold my own against that,” she said. “They’ve been skiing and they’re in totally top form, and I’m coming back from ripping my oblique in half!”
Read the full article here