Mikaela Shiffrin crashes at World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo

Mikaela Shiffrin crashed into the safety nets after losing control landing a jump during the World Cup downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo on Friday. The Edwards skier was taken by ambulance to a clinic in Cortina and “is being evaluated for a left leg injury” her team told the Associated Press.

“Initial analysis shows the ACL and PCL seem intact. Further details to come,” the statement continued.

Wearing bib No. 8, Shiffrin, a four-time downhill winner on the World Cup, was only 17 seconds into her run when she floated over a small riser and landed on the inside left of the blue course paint. Approaching a sharp left-hand turn, her inside position on the landing forced her to swerve right in order to avoid colliding with the gate, which sent her careening into the net.

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A three-minute blackout on skiandsnowboard.live occurred immediately following the crash as the race was delayed for an extended period. The AP reported that “medics tended to Shiffrin immediately and she eventually got up and limped away for more care.” Eventually, she was helped off the course with her left boot raised off the snow.

Later, Corinne Suter pulled up clutching her left knee after landing hard in the exact same spot where Shiffrin fell. Federica Brignone also crashed following the long race delay due to Shiffrin’s fall. The former overall champion got up right away, however, and skied down the hill uninjured.

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“It’s never easy when you see so many girls doing mistakes and crashing,” 2018 Olympic downhill gold medalist Sofia Goggia, who was tied for third with Christina Ager and Valerie Grenier, told FIS media.

“You have to just think about your lines and stay focused on what you can do, but for sure, Mikaela Shiffrin, Brignone, Suter are three big names and when it happens to girls like this, you think a little bit more.”

All told, 12 of the 52 starters posted DNFs. The weather was clear and sunny, but warm.

Stephanie Venier took the win at the 2026 Olympic venue, gunning the 760-meter Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 33.06 seconds. Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami (1:33.45) finished second and Grenier, Ager and Goggia rounded out the podium, 0.71 seconds off of Venier’s standard.

“My run was super nice. … My skis were very fast today,” Venier told FIS.

“I was not expecting that at all, that’s for sure,” Grenier said, adding that she “came here to score points” and is still getting used to the long skis.

“I’m still kind of learning about downhill, but this hill I know so well — I’ve done Cortina so many times now. That’s why I decided to come race here because I felt confident doing it. The snow was really nice.”

Jacqueline Wiles, Lauren Macuga and Isabella Wright led the American finishers in 13th, 16th and 18th, respectively.

“It is arguable one of the greatest accomplishments of Mikaela Shiffrin’s endlessly decorated career in that she’s only been out of action six weeks — and that from an MCL sprain, back in 2015 — and has otherwise been injury free,” said longtime Alpine analyst Steve Porino on the skiandsnowboard.live broadcast.

Shiffrin injured her right MCL warming up for a giant slalom in Are, Sweden in December of 2015.

Shiffrin and Brignone join a list of former crystal globe winners who have crashed during the 2023-24 season. Alexis Pinturault, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, and Petra Vlhova suffered season-ending injuries in the past two weeks.

Shiffrin thanked her fans for the support and well wishes in an Instagram post later in the day.

“At this point I’m just taking it day by day, and I’ll share more information or updates as I know,” she stated.

“Very thankful it’s not worse, but I’m pretty sore at the moment.”

Shiffrin said she won’t be skiing the rest of this weekend or in Kronplatz on Jan. 30.

“Beyond that, It’s quite hard to say right now,” the post continued. “Need a little time to process with my team and see how everything is feeling in the coming days.”