Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin Won't Defend World Title, Citing PTSD From November Crash

Mikaela Shiffrin will not defend her gold medal in giant slalom at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, the skiing great has announced. The event is scheduled for Thursday.

Shiffrin revealed that she is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder after a crash at a giant slalom race on Nov. 30. The Olympian suffered a puncture wound that severely injured her oblique muscles.

"I'm mentally blocked in being able to get to the next level of pace and speed and putting power into the turns," Shiffrin told the Associated Press on Monday, speaking via audio message. "And that kind of mental, psychological like PTSD-esque struggle is more than I anticipated."

"I figured once we touched ground in Europe and we got a chance to get some repetitive training days, I would be able to improve step by step and sort of the passion and the longing for racing was going to outweigh any fear that I had."

Shiffrin also shared her decision on Instagram, where she said that while she "figured my passion and longing to compete would outweigh the mental barriers," she is "not there yet," and "coming to terms with how much fear I have doing an event I loved so dearly only two months ago has been soul-crushing."

Shiffrin will instead join fellow skiier and new world downhill champion Breezy Johnson for the team combined event, where one racer competes in a downhill run, one racer competes in a slalom run, and the pair's times are added together to determine final results, per the AP. As an event, slalom is slower than giant slalom, which decreases the risk associated.

Shiffrin is one of the most decorated and celebrated alpine skiers in history, with an impressive 99 World Cup wins and16 global medals, among many other accolades.

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