COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colorado — His time and where he finished were irrelevant. For the first time since a horrific crash almost two years ago, and the surgeries, setbacks and fears that followed, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde was racing.
With fiancée Mikaela Shiffrin watching anxiously in the finish area, the Norwegian made a triumphant return Thursday to the sport he once dominated. When he crossed the finish line, Kilde and Shiffrin both broke into wide smiles.
“They were very overwhelming,” Kilde said of his emotions. “They were — the last, I don’t know how many months, but there’s been a lot of thinking, different scenarios in my head. How is it going to be to be back? Am I going to handle it?
“And honestly, the feeling that I had when I was skiing was just, it was amazing,” Kilde said, smiling and making a chef’s kiss gesture. “I had the best time I’ve had in so, so long.”
Kilde, the 2020 overall champion and two-time medalist at the Beijing Olympics, was going about 90 mph when he crashed within sight of the finish line at a World Cup in Wengen, Switzerland in January 2024. He suffered a deep gash and nerve damage in his calf, and also dislocated his shoulder, tearing multiple ligaments and causing nerve damage.
But that was just the start of the nightmare. A few months after the crash, Kilde developed a persistent infection in the shoulder that led to a case of sepsis and three surgeries between August 2024 and February of this year.
All told, he’s had more than a half-dozen surgeries since the crash, and his shoulder is still not where it was before the crash.
‘I needed a little bit more meat on the bone when it comes to when (the course) is stacking up and it’s deeper and more challenging,’ Kilde said. ‘You can see in the bottom, that’s where I lost most of the time.’
But Kilde was always determined to return to the World Cup circuit and, he hopes, to ski at the Milano Cortina Olympics. He has spent much of the last year rehabbing and building strength, trying to get as close as possible to where he was before the crash.
Kilde had originally targeted next weekend’s races in Beaver Creek, Colorado, for his comeback, beginning a 100-day countdown on social media in late August. But after training at Copper the last few weeks, Kilde announced Wednesday that he was going to race the super-G.
“It’s been going pretty OK in the trainings since we got here, so I was thinking, why not use it as a next step thing? The best training you can get is to do that race,” Kilde said.
Kilde said he was nervous in the start gate, his knees shaking. Shiffrin was nervous too, her eyes fixed on the Jumbotron as her mother, Eileen, hugged her from behind.
Once he was on the course, however, the last 22 months slipped away. Kilde was solid and in control throughout his race, only losing speed at the end of the course. He finished 24th, 1.25 seconds behind winner Marco Odermatt of Switzerland.
Shiffrin put her gloves to her face, crying, as Kilde acknowledged the cheers of the crowd with a wave of his ski pole. When Kilde found Shiffrin in the crowd, she waved at him, joyfully jumping up and down.
“Not as fast as I want to, but that’s going to come later hopefully,” Kilde said. “Only (1.25 seconds) behind is a win for me today. Actually, just being on start is a win for me today.”
Shiffrin was waiting for Kilde as he exited the finish area, and the two shared a long, tearful embrace.
“A lot of weight (lifted),” Kilde said. “From good days to bad days, to crashes to hospitals, to doubting about everything, but also feeling that this is the life we want to live. And everything came at once and I think both of us just were a little bit speechless.
“I couldn’t say much,” he added. “I was just bawling.”
Not every victory comes with a spot on the podium. For Kilde, just getting across this finish line was as big as any win he’s ever had.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.