With an old acquaintance

Emotional return for ski queen Mikaela Shiffrin

Mikaela Shiffrin (left) returns to the scene of her crash together with Tina Maze.(Bild: GEPA, instagram.com/mikaelashiffrin)

Mikaela Shiffrin has returned to the place where she fell: together with former ski star Tina Maze, she hit the slopes in Cortina d'Ampezzo. For the US American, it was "a day for the soul".

"It's strange to return to the place where I fell," Shiffrin describes via Instagram. In the first Cortina downhill on 26 January, she came off the course and landed with full force in the safety net. The overall World Cup leader at the time suffered an inner ligament injury in her knee and had to take a break for weeks.

Former ski racer Tina Maze now accompanied Shiffrin to Cortina. As a video of the US American shows, the two of them conjured up turns in the snow on the Olimpia delle Tofane. Shiffrin also made peace with the place where she fell. "We live, we fall, we learn, we grow and hopefully we don't let fear dictate how we experience the things we love to do," she wrote on her post. "Let it be nothing more and nothing less than what it really is - a part of the process."

"Next time I'm paying for lunch"
 And Shiffrin thanked Maze "for showing us a side of Cortina that we don't normally get to see at the races. I think I'll be back, and next time I'll pay for lunch."