Norwegian speed specialist Aleksander Aamodt Kilde has laid bare the psychological scars of his near-two-year injury nightmare, admitting he plunged into “the deepest, darkest place” of his life after a horrific crash at Wengen in January 2024.
In a raw Instagram video reposted by the official FIS Ski World Cup account, the 33-year-old two-time Olympic medalist described how the devastating shoulder dislocation, severed calf nerves, and subsequent sepsis stripped away more than his physical freedom.
“I’ve been in the deepest, darkest place in my life,” Kilde said. “You’re not only losing your job—you’re losing your purpose. I missed the lifestyle, the team, the racing. It’s been a rollercoaster of good days and bad.”
The comeback trail has led Kilde to Colorado, where he is training with the Norwegian squad in Copper Mountain ahead of a targeted return at the Birds of Prey downhill in Beaver Creek—his self-proclaimed “favorite race”—on December 5. After five surgeries and a brutal infection that required ten weeks of antibiotics, Kilde says his shoulder sits at “80 percent” mobility but will never fully recover.
“To be competitive off the bat would be amazing,” he told reporters Tuesday. “If I have the speed, if I can handle the load, if I’m ready to go full gas—that’s the cherry on the cake.”
Kilde’s fiancée, American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, has walked a parallel path of pain. The 30-year-old record holder for World Cup wins (101) suffered a deep abdominal puncture wound and severe muscle trauma in a high-speed giant-slalom crash at Killington last November. The injury forced emergency surgery and sidelined her for weeks.
In a recent People magazine interview, Shiffrin revealed the couple has operated in “total survival mode” for 18 months.
“This season has been hard because of his injury and mine,” she said. “The time we’ve spent together hasn’t been super high-quality—we’ve both been healing.”
Yet the shared struggle has forged deeper steel. Shiffrin credits Kilde’s unwavering support for fueling her own return, which began with a confidence-boosting fourth place in the Sölden giant slalom last month—her best GS result in 21 months.
Shiffrin opened up further in an exclusive ServusTV On sit-down filmed against the Dachstein glacier, confessing that reflecting on triumphs often leaves her in tears. “Normally I start crying,” she admitted, before praising Kilde’s resurgence: “To see him ski fast and fearless again—it’s everything.”
The couple, engaged since April 2024, spent the northern summer training side-by-side at La Parva, Chile, rebuilding bodies and bond. Kilde calls Shiffrin his “rock”; she calls their partnership proof that “the mountain can break you, but it can’t define you.”
As gates drop in Beaver Creek, the skiing world watches two champions chase more than podiums—they’re racing to reclaim the joy that injury tried to steal.
