With the World Cup just across the corner, Mikaela Shiffrin and Aleksander Kilde – skiing's golden couple – are focused on recovery

Alpine skiing enthusiasts didn't imagine this once they scheduled men's and girls's speed races on consecutive weekends this month on the famed Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

They thought the events held great potential for a celebration of the game's golden couple: American Mikaela Shiffrin, who could also be closing in on her record a hundredth World Cup victory, and her fiancé Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway, arguably the most effective speed skater on this planet World world, each reached the rostrum just a couple of miles from Shiffrin's home in Edwards.

That was Plan A. Not implemented as Kilde announced in October that he would miss your entire World Cup season because of injuries sustained in a crash in January.

On the intense side, Shiffrin is back on her feet and running again after falling herself during a World Cup giant slalom race in Vermont over Thanksgiving weekend, sustaining a severe cut to her abdomen. She has to take an indefinite break, but expects to be back soon. Last weekend she filmed a video while rigorously walking outside her house.

“I got my trusty little wound vacuum, we used it yesterday,” she said, showing off the device, which may speed healing by reducing air pressure over a wound, drawing out fluid and dead tissue and reducing swelling. “Here I am,” she added with a glance of grudging acceptance as she cautiously stepped onto an icy mountain road.

An update from Mikaela Shiffrin on her injury on the World Cup race in Killington. pic.twitter.com/jTUIqyeZ12

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) December 7, 2024

Shiffrin's recent injury also derailed Plan B, which called for Kilde, who has spent nearly a 12 months recovering from the intense accident in Switzerland 11 months ago, to support Shiffrin on the Birds of Prey track in Beaver Creek this weekend – where he won three years ago and where she had never competed. Instead, he taught her the art of patience and recovery.

Unfortunately, Kilde needed to grow to be an authority at this. The accident in January destroyed his left shoulder and tore muscles from the joint. It also left a deep cut on his right calf attributable to one in every of his skis. Then, out of nowhere, in July, an infection struck his surgically repaired shoulder. He was on the verge of sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition that happens when the body's immune system overreacts to an infection, damaging the body's tissues and organs.

With a racing heart, swollen shoulders and a rising fever, he went to the emergency room during a visit to Shiffrin in Colorado. The doctors took one take a look at him and told him he wouldn't be going anywhere for some time.

There are few sports that test an athlete's ability to take care of injury as much as alpine skiing. The injury rate is largely 100%. So lots of his top performers have missed entire seasons or longer recovering from horrific broken bones, torn ligaments, torn joints, concussions and the whole lot else that may occur in high-speed accidents on ice while stuck on long, sharp-edged carbon boards. Skiers are good at making a thumbs up Instagram post from their hospital bed, but recovery and rehabilitation is anything but a glad process.

Shiffrin, 29, has been pretty lucky thus far in her storied profession, despite missing six weeks last season while recovering from an injury to her knee ligaments sustained in a downhill race on the Olympia delle Tofane course in Cortina d' Ampezzo, Italy, where the 2026 women's Olympic competition will happen. She returned in time to secure one other slalom title of the season, however the experience took its toll on her brain in addition to her body.

“When you're injured, whether it's for nine months or eight weeks, you see the world going on without you being where you should be, and that's frustrating,” she said in an interview before the beginning of the season. “There are so many moments of doubt, where you feel pain or weakness, where you think, 'I don't know if I can do this.'”

This is largely Kilde's life since his accident in January.

The shoulder and leg injuries left him confined to a wheelchair for weeks as he was unable to make use of crutches. Kilde was called the “Arnold Schwarzenegger of skiing” due to his strength. It is difficult to assume that he is just too weak to get out of the wheelchair.

The wound in his calf severed the nerves. For months he couldn't move his foot or toes the best way he wanted. Sometimes his toes would just hang down like limbs. It wasn't until late spring that he began to imagine that his foot would eventually function properly again, although he still doesn't have much feeling in his toes.

For months he felt like his life had no meaning.

“You lose your job and you’re injured, you can’t even do anything,” he said. “I can’t work on my shoulder that needed work. I can't work on my leg that needed work. I can't even go out in the sun because of antibiotics. I had to be inside. Honestly, just a really, really boring life.”

After a couple of weeks, he realized that he had to seek out a reason to get away from bed within the morning, especially since this recovery would take some time. So he searched for a strategy to stimulate his mind.

Kilde could also be a two-time Olympic medalist with 48 World Cup podiums, but in some ways he’s the black sheep of his very educated family. His father is an engineer. His mother is a nurse. His brother is a financial manager. He has a highschool education and lately has focused totally on the outside and his athletic profession. It had been an extended time since he had to check. And even longer since he became serious about studying.

However, he can be serious about real estate. So he signed up for an eight-week online course in real estate and finance on the London School of Economics. Each week there have been a lot of modules to finish, plus assignments and assignments, a final project and a certificate at the tip.

The course description stated that the work would take roughly 10 hours per week. He said it took no less than 20 years. He hasn't worked with mathematical formulas for 15 years.

He said he learned rather a lot about his investments, but greater than that, he learned something about himself.

“Reading and learning is really something that can give you a lot of energy,” he said. “I've never thought about it like that. I felt like I didn't need it. But I think now, just always try to learn. It's really something that's good for you. Not just for your mental performance, but also for your mental health. It’s very nice to know things.”

It will likely be nice to ski again. He is allowed to ski on snow again, but only free of charge skiing. He can't walk fast. He can't crash. He needs further surgery on his shoulder as doctors have needed to remove much of the work they’d done attempting to rid his body of the infection.

The next operation will likely be the one that enables a comeback. At the moment he can mainly lead a standard life. He just can't race. To prepare for this, he pays close attention to his food plan, cutting out alcohol and most sugar, ensuring to eat high-quality meat and other proteins, and waiting for the chance to do what he got down to do most of his life. And when he needs his speed boost, he has a pleasant Audi that goes from zero to 60 pretty quickly.

“And that’s okay,” he said.

His fiancée still has to work on her patience as she overcomes her recent injury. She might be just a little less composed than him at times, especially when she's on the sidelines waiting to be healthy enough to return to the starting hut at the highest of the hill.

On the opposite hand, this one is just a little different.

“I was impaled,” she announced in a video posted to social media days after her accident.

You can't say that every single day. Not even for those who're an alpine skier.