Mikaela Shiffrin’s fiancé will miss the upcoming ski season after experiencing another setback in his recovery from a brutal downhill crash.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, the 2020 overall champion and a two-time Olympic medalist from Norway, said Wednesday he needs to have reconstructive surgery on his shoulder after a persistent infection destroyed some of the bone. He’ll need three to four months of rehab after the surgery before he’ll be able to put weight on the joint.
“That kind of speaks for itself,” Kilde said in an Instagram video that included photos of him in the hospital and scans of his injuries. “We will keep fighting. Now I think this is the last step until we’re hopefully back skiing again.”
Kilde needed emergency surgery after crashing into a safety net at full speed during a downhill race in January in Wengen, Switzerland. He suffered a nasty gash in his leg that also damaged a nerve, and he tore ligaments and dislocated his shoulder.
Though the recovery was arduous, Kilde said by June his leg and shoulder were feeling good and “I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.” Within a few weeks, however, his shoulder wasn’t feeling right and tests showed he’d developed a massive infection.
Kilde had two surgeries in Vail, Colo., where Shiffrin has an off-season home, and antibiotics seemed to be working. But the infection soon returned, and he’s had another two surgeries since returning to his home base in Europe.
“(It) was the toughest part so far,” he said. “Mentally tough, not just because it then takes longer for me to go back skiing, but also I was asking myself, `Am I going to be able to really use my shoulder ever again?’”
But Kilde said the infection now appears to be gone after another six weeks of antibiotics.
“The issue here is the infection was so aggressive and was there in my shoulder for a long time, so it was eating on my bone,” he said. “All the hardware and everything that was in my shoulder needed to go out.”
Kilde, 32, is considered one of the best downhill skiers in the world, winning the season title in the two years prior to his crash. He insisted he’s not retiring, and said he plans to be involved in skiing this season — beginning with being in Soelden, Austria, this weekend for the start of Shiffrin’s season.
The couple, who’ve been together for about four years, got engaged in April.
“This season, we’re just going to take it in stride and take it as it comes,” said Shiffrin, whose 97 World Cup wins are the most by any skier, male or female.