Mikaela Shiffrin: ‘I have not really felt that kind of pain — ever’

KILLINGTON, Vt. - The problem with planning for milestones in ski racing is that calamity can feel more likely than joy. It looms at every turn. So it was that Mikaela Shiffrin, the heavy favorite to win the 100th World Cup race of her career here, instead spent her Sunday on a couch down the hill from the racecourse, talking about the excruciating hole in her side and the prospects for her immediate future.

“I’m really lucky, for sure,” Shiffrin said Sunday morning in a FaceTime call. “But I have not really felt that kind of pain - ever. Could not move on the side of the hill. Just fully in shock.”

She paused a second and added, “I’m feeling better now. I’m moving around a bit. I basically have this hole …”

We’ll get to that. Puncture wounds caused by ski gates at high rates of speed are neither for the faint of heart nor the first few paragraphs.

Now that it’s clear that Shiffrin’s end-over-end, barreling-into-the-fence crash in Saturday’s giant slalom at Killington left no devastating damage, there’s time for her to sigh in relief. There are also two problems ahead. The first is for Shiffrin herself, who must deal with the fallout from that hole in her side and figure out first when she can travel and then when she can ski.

Don’t hold your breath.

“It’s going to be a minute to let the wound heal,” Shiffrin said. “… In theory, it’ll heal from the inside-out, but that’s going to take like a couple weeks for sure. And then it’s building the muscle back up to actually be able to withstand the forces of a ski turn.”

Translation: Her planned speed debut - a super-G at her home mountain of Beaver Creek, Colorado on Dec. 15 - is highly unlikely. Her pursuit of an unprecedented 100th World Cup victory isn’t over for the season, but it’s on indefinite hold. Check back when the tour returns to Europe over the holidays.

“It’ll come when it comes,” she said.

But Shiffrin’s absence from Sunday’s slalom at Killington - an event she has won six of the seven times it has been staged - highlights a looming issue for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team’s Alpine side: After Mikaela, who’s next?

“She’s set an incredibly high standard,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, the CEO of the USSA. “I never take any of what she does for granted. She is a role model both on and off the snow.

“But we’re constantly working on our development plans, seeing how we can get more athletes engaged, more athletes in the pipeline for longer. And look, we’re seeing some depth. But again, Mikaela is irreplaceable.”

Shiffrin isn’t going away - yet. But at 29, she’s closer to the end of her career than the beginning, which means the time that she can provide cover for the entirety of American skiing is drawing nigh.

Think of it through the numbers, and not just those 99 wins: Shiffrin has 154 podium finishes, meaning her next top-three will tie her with Swedish icon Ingemar Stenmark for the most all-time. The entirety of the rest of the active American team - men and women - have combined for 24 podiums.

Now, that discounts Lindsey Vonn, the legend who is attempting a comeback at 40 years old on a replaced knee, hoping to add to a massive total of 82 victories. Put aside how likely or unlikely that is for a moment. In a way, Vonn’s impending return - she could race at Beaver Creek, though her full-season plans will depend on training and race results - further emphasizes the American’s yearning for the next star.

The United States may have encouraging depth. That depth just hasn’t yet produced results that make the athletes recognizable to the general public, and therefore able to draw the general public into the sport.

Shiffrin didn’t race Sunday. But it was Shiffrin’s face on the between-run ads. It was Shiffrin’s absence that was the chatter. And when only one American, veteran Paula Moltzan, qualified for the second run of the slalom - a day after she and teammate Nina O’Brien placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in GS - it further highlighted how important Shiffrin is to the entire operation.

“I train with these girls, and they’re fast,” Shiffrin said. “But it also takes time, and races are different from training.”

The entire weekend here shows how hard reaching a single podium is - and then taking an athlete who reaches one, and producing more and more and more. In some ways, the most promising American development was the skiing of Elisabeth Bocock, a 19-year-old from Utah who roared into eighth place after the first run of giant slalom - and who had the opportunity to analyze the course with Shiffrin afterward.

“She’s been so, so nice to me in between runs, talking me through the course, talking about pressure and all this stuff,” Bocock said. “She’s been nothing but kind to me.”

In an aggressive second run, Bocock slammed a gate with her hand midway through, lost a pole, but collected herself and impressively skied to the finish.

“All the grit that she showed is just really exciting for the future,” Shiffrin said.

The future isn’t yet fully developed. Nor is it guaranteed. Shiffrin’s injury means she has work to get back for herself - but, by no fault of her own, for her team and her sport as well. Should Vonn race at Beaver Creek, she would draw eyes. The men race there next weekend. The World Cup finals are scheduled for March in Sun Valley, Idaho, just the second time in 29 years they’ll be staged in the United States. This is an opportunity.

“We really feel giving local fans a chance to see their heroes in person is massive,” Goldschmidt said. “… The events in Europe are amazing, but coming in the middle of the night [U.S. time], you don’t get the same amount of interest.”

Timing matters. But so do characters. So back to Shiffrin.

The crash in Saturday’s GS happened in the second run, as she held onto the lead, all of five or six turns from the finish.

“It just happened so fast that I went straight into the gate at max speed,” Shiffrin said. “And then tumbled. It felt like I had 12 pairs of legs.”

As best her team can determine, the puncture wound came from one of the poles of the gate she obliterated. It’s too deep to be held together by stitches, so she has to insert a device called a wick, and change it daily.

“It’s like a tap that sticks out of the hole and keeps the skin from closing,” Shiffrin said, “because it’s sort of an infection risk.”

The goal: Rest enough in Vermont that she can move without too much discomfort, and make sure the injury won’t respond adversely to air travel. Then get home to Avon, Colorado, for recovery and, eventually, rehab.

The races in Beaver Creek will almost certainly go on without her in the start gate.

“By then, I’ll probably be moving a little bit better for just walking and everything,” she said. “I’d like to be around the slopes to support my teammates, at least.”

The timing of this injury, during the domestic part of the calendar, is unfortunate. But for the people responsible for fostering and developing American ski racers and the excitement that can accompany them, it’s also a stark reminder that one woman can’t hold up the whole show, and that one woman isn’t going to be pushing limits and winning races in perpetuity.

Barry Svrluga became a sports columnist for The Washington Post in December 2016. He arrived at The Post in 2003 to cover football and basketball at the University of Maryland and has covered the Washington Nationals, the Washington Football Team, the Olympics and golf.