Shiffrin steadily overcoming PTSD in giant slalom after crash, focus on slalom at World Cup finals

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Shiffrin steadily overcoming PTSD in giant slalom after crash, focus on slalom at World Cup finals

2025-03-25 14:33 Last Updated At：14:40

SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin's flashbacks to her November crash in a giant slalom race are happening less and less when she's training.

For her, as she deals with post-traumatic stress disorder in the discipline, that's major progress.

While other racers compete in the GS on Tuesday at World Cup finals in Sun Valley, Shiffrin plans to squeeze in some training in the slalom. It will be the American standout's only event of the weeklong finals after not qualifying in giant slalom.

The two-time Olympic champion revealed last month that she’s suffering from PTSD after falling in the GS on Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont. In the crash, something punctured Shiffrin's side and caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles.

Shiffrin skipped the giant slalom at world championships and has raced the discipline three times since, with her best showing 25th place.

But she's back to turning in fast sections at practice in the GS, a discipline that blends speed and technical skill.

“Training is going well. It’s actually super positive. Training has been improving day-by-day,” Shiffrin said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday before signing autographs for fans. “I'm just trying to get back to the confidence that I was skiing with in Killington when the crash happened. That would be a big goal.”

On that day, Shiffrin was leading after the first run of the GS as she charged after her 100th World Cup win. The finish line was in sight on her final run, when she lost an edge and slid into a gate, flipping head over skis.

The all-time winningest Alpine World Cup ski racer then slammed into another gate before coming to a stop in the protective fencing. She still doesn't know what led to the puncture wound.

To help with getting back in the giant slalom start gate, she's been working with a psychologist. Leading into world championships and the GS, she checked most of the boxes for PTSD symptoms. A few weeks later in Are, Sweden, she checked fewer.

“My processing speed and the mind-body connection has come back in a great way,” explained Shiffrin, who earned her 100th World Cup win last month in Italy. "But every now and then I’ll still have the sort of intrusive images or thoughts cross my mind of crashing or the pain. Normally, it’s in the start gate. If I’m starting to get a little bit tired in a session, I just imagine everything that could go wrong and it’s kind of an intense reaction.

“But it happens so much less often now. It does feel very true that simply exposure to doing the thing that’s pretty uncomfortable is helpful.”

Following her slalom training session Tuesday, Shiffrin will be watching as New Zealand’s Alice Robinson tries to hold off Italy’s Federica Brignone for the crystal globe in the giant slalom.

The 30-year-old Shiffrin can see glimpses of her GS form returning. She won an Olympic gold medal in the discipline at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games and 22 of her 100 World Cup victories have come in giant slalom.

“Some of my turns are competitive with the fastest in the world,” said Shiffrin, whose slalom race is Thursday. “But putting that together for a minute and 10-second GS run — that just takes time and repetition. We’ll need to try to get some days this summer with long course sets, with a lot of variation of course sets, variation of conditions. I don’t doubt that I can get to that competitive level again.

"I think a lot of my skiing is already there.”

AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing

Severe weather leaves at least 23 dead, including 14 in storm-battered Kentucky

2025-05-17 23:44 Last Updated At：23:51

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Storm systems sweeping across parts of the U.S. Midwest and South have left at least 23 people dead, many of them in Kentucky, where what appeared to be a devastating tornado crumbled buildings and flipped over a car on an interstate.

In Kentucky, some 14 people were killed by severe weather, and the death toll is likely to rise, according to Gov. Andy Beshear. Local authorities in Laurel County, in the state's southeast, said nine people were killed after a tornado touched down.

Laurel County resident Chris Cromer said he got the first of two tornado alerts on his phone around 11:30 p.m. or so, about a half-hour before the tornado struck. He and his wife grabbed their dog, jumped in their car, went to a relative's nearby home and got into a crawlspace.

“We could hear and feel the vibration of the tornado coming through,” said Cromer, 46.

His home is intact, though a piece of the roof got ripped off and windows were broken. A house two doors down is destroyed, along with others in the Sunshine Hills neighborhood, Cromer said.

“It’s one of those things that you see on the news in other areas, and you feel bad for people — then, when it happens, it’s just surreal," he said, describing a landscape of destruction. "It makes you be thankful to be alive, really.”

Rescuers were searching for survivors all night and into the morning, the sheriff's office said. An emergency shelter was set up at a local high school and donations of food and other necessities were arriving.

The National Weather Service hadn't yet confirmed that a tornado struck, but meteorologist Philomon Geertson said it was likely. It ripped across the largely rural area and extended to the London Corbin Airport shortly before midnight.

“Lives have been changed forever here tonight. This is a time we come together, and we pray for this community,” London Mayor Randall Weddle told WKYT-TV.

It’s the latest severe weather to cause deaths and widespread damage in Kentucky. Two months ago, at least 24 people died in a round of storms that swelled creeks and submerged roads. Hundreds of people were rescued, and most of the deaths were caused by vehicles getting stuck in high water.

A storm in late 2021 spawned tornadoes that killed 81 people and leveled portions of towns in western Kentucky. The following summer, historic floodwaters inundated parts of eastern Kentucky, leaving dozens more dead.

About 1,200 tornadoes strike the U.S. annually, and they have been reported in all 50 states over the years. Researchers found in 2018 that deadly tornadoes were happening less frequently in the traditional “Tornado Alley” of Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas and more frequently in parts of the more densely populated and tree-filled mid-South area.

The latest Kentucky storms were part of a weather system Friday that killed seven in Missouri and two in northern Virginia, authorities said. The system also spawned tornadoes in Wisconsin, brought a punishing heat wave to Texas and temporarily enveloped parts of Illinois — including Chicago — in a pall of dust on an otherwise sunny day.

“Well that was.....something,” the weather service's Chicago office wrote on X after issuing its first-ever dust storm warning for the city. Thunderstorms in central Illinois had pushed strong winds over dry, dusty farmland and northward into the Chicago area, the weather agency said.

In Missouri, St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer on Friday confirmed five deaths in her city and said more than 5,000 homes were affected.

“This is truly, truly devastating,” Spencer said. An overnight curfew was imposed Friday in the most damaged neighborhoods. Hospitals in the area reported receiving dozens of patients, with some in serious condition.

Weather service radar indicated a likely tornado touched down between 2:30 p.m. and 2:50 p.m. in Clayton, Missouri, in the St. Louis area. The apparent tornado touched down in the area of Forest Park, home to the St. Louis Zoo and the site of the 1904 World’s Fair and Olympic Games the same year.

Three people needed aid after part of the Centennial Christian Church crumbled, St. Louis Fire Battalion Chief William Pollihan told The Associated Press.

Stacy Clark said his mother-in-law, Patricia Penelton, died in the church. He described her as a very active church volunteer who had many roles, including being part of the choir.

John Randle said he and his girlfriend were at the St. Louis Art Museum during the storm and were hustled into the basement with about 150 other people.

"You could see the doors flying open, tree branches flying by and people running,” he said. “A lot of people were caught outside.”

At the Saint Louis Zoo, falling trees severely damaged the roof of a butterfly facility. Staffers quickly corralled most of the butterflies, the zoo said on social media, and a conservatory in suburban Chesterfield is caring for the displaced creatures.

A tornado struck in Scott County, about 130 miles (209 kilometers) south of St. Louis, killing two people, injuring several others and destroying multiple homes, Sheriff Derick Wheetley wrote on social media.

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center said on its website Saturday that severe thunderstorms, large hail and “a couple of tornadoes” were expected across the southern Plains, with especially high risk in north Texas.

Contributing were Associated Press writers Haya Panjwani in Washington, D.C., Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Missouri, Lisa Baumann in Bellingham, Washington, Julie Walker and Jennifer Peltz in New York and Sudhin Thanawala in Atlanta.