Mikaela Shiffrin Reveals PTSD from Crash; Decides Not to Defend Skiing Worlds Title

Skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin will not defend her gold medal in the giant slalom at the Alpine skiing world championships as she continues her recovery from a November crash in Killington, Vermont.

The 29-year-old told the Associated Press in an audio message Monday that she is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I'm mentally blocked in being able to get to the next level of pace and speed and putting power into the turns," Shiffrin said, per Andrew Dampf of the AP. "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."

The PTSD comes after she suffered "a deep puncture wound" in the giant slalom crash, which injured her oblique muscles and was, in her own words, "a millimeter from pretty catastrophic."

The United States Ski and Snowboard team provided an update the day after the crash and said she was hospitalized with the puncture wound and "severe muscle trauma" and did not suffer any damage to her ligaments, bones or internal organs.

Shiffrin is the reigning world champion in giant slalom thanks to her victory in France two years ago.

She also took to Instagram and explained, "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. … Coming to terms with how much fear I have doing an event that I loved so dearly only 2 months ago has been soul-crushing."

However, there was a silver lining for Shiffrin, who celebrated the opportunity to participate in the Team Combined race because she is not competing in the giant slalom.

She was paired with downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson for the team event.

Shiffrin finished in 10th place in slalom—which does not feature the same speed and danger level as giant slalom—when she returned to action in January for the first time since her crash.

She also plans on competing in slalom at worlds.

Shiffrin is arguably the greatest skier of all time as a two-time Olympic gold medalist, one-time Olympic silver medalist and seven-time world champion with a resume that also includes 99 World Cup wins. That makes here the winningest skier in history.