Shiffrin to skip giant slalom, but will team up with Johnson

SAALBACH, Austria — Mikaela Shiffrin said on Monday she will not defend her giant slalom title at the World Ski Championships because of crash-induced post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the US star will race with newly-crowned downhill champion Breezy Johnson in the women's team combined on Tuesday.

Shiffrin is making her comeback from an injury in Killington in November that left her with an abdominal puncture wound, explaining her decision to sit out the giant slalom "soul-crushing".

Johnson claimed a shock gold in Saturday's downhill just weeks after her own comeback from a 14-month suspension for three anti-doping whereabouts failures.

"After becoming world champion in downhill on Saturday, Breezy told me 'If you want to do the TC, I would be honoured to pair with you. Not because of the medal, but because this sport is crazy fun, and it would be fun to bring it full circle after all these years'," Shiffrin said.

"Breezy and I have been racing together since we were 11.

"We've been roommates, competitors, friends. And she's right... it will be so cool to bring this full circle."

Shiffrin initially said she would not take part in the women's team combined, a new event that will also feature in next year's Winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina d'Ampezzo.

The event sees two athletes racing one run of downhill and one run of slalom. The combined time will determine the winner.

No 'Dream Team' 

Lindsey Vonn had warmed to the idea of skiing alongside Shiffrin in a veritable US dream team boasting an unprecedented 181 World Cup victories.

Shiffrin, with a record 99 of those World Cup wins to her name, rowed back on her initial decision, saying on social media Monday that she would indeed participate in the team combined.

Vonn will instead race with slalom specialist AJ Hurt.

"Always been a team player and I support my team no matter what," Vonn said on X after having seemingly queried the decision making.

"I'm not surprised by the decisions made, but at least now it's clear that it's not my decision. I have always been supportive and respectful and that will never change."

There was not, however, such good news for Shiffrin's participation in the giant slalom.

"I've poured all of my energy into getting my giant slalom in shape to be prepared to start world champs GS in Saalbach on Thursday," Shiffrin said.

"The long-story-short is... I'm not there. Right now, I feel quite far away. I'm currently working through some mental obstacles in order to return to the GS start with the intensity required for racing."

Mental barrier 

Shiffrin admitted that she had not counted on "experiencing so much of this kind of mental/PTSD struggle in GS from my injury in Killington".

"I figured my passion and longing to compete would outweigh the mental barriers," she added.

"Maybe that will be the case over time, but I'm not there yet.

"Coming to terms with how much fear I have doing an event that I loved so dearly on two months ago has been soul-crushing."

Shiffrin added: "I just haven't been able to overcome some of those psychological challenges from the crash and the injury.

"I just haven't been able to fully overcome those in GS to be able to produce skiing that's good enough to race World Cup GS races.

"I feel like my skiing technically is good, but I'm mentally blocked in being able to get to the next level of pace and speed and putting power into the turns.

"And that kind of mental, psychological, PTSD-esque struggle, it's more than I anticipated."

Shiffrin, who has seven world championship gold medals to her name, has 14 medals in 17 world champ starts dating back to 2013.