Mikaela Shiffrin battled with a ‘mind-body disconnect’ before winning historic 100th World Cup race

It’s perhaps an understatement when Mikaela Shiffrin says that she has been on “quite a journey” this season. That doesn’t do justice to the mental and physical obstacles she has had to overcome in order to reach a landmark 100th World Cup win.

It’s perhaps an understatement when Mikaela Shiffrin says that she has been on “quite a journey” this season. That doesn’t do justice to the mental and physical obstacles she has had to overcome in order to reach a landmark 100th World Cup win, a feat she finally achieved in the Italian resort of Sestriere on Sunday. To begin to understand the months-long ordeal the American skier has had to endure in the build-up to that history-making victory, you first have to go back to November 30 when Shiffrin crashed out of a giant slalom race in Killington, Vermont. Physically, the impact of that crash was brutal: Severe muscle trauma and a seven-centimeter-deep (about 2.76 inches) puncture wound to the abdomen which Shiffrin said nearly pushed into her colon. “It’s been such a constant grind to get my muscles back to a functioning place,” she told CNN Sport. “In the context of ski racing, the obliques, internal and external, are some of the most important muscles that we have. Besides our legs, it’s some of the most important parts of the body. … It’s been a really, really big, very steep uphill battle just to get back to skiing.” Shiffrin returned to competition two months after the crash and placed 10th in the slalom event in Courchevel, rekindling her pursuit of a 100th career win.