For the first time in more than two years, Petra Vlhová is heading into a World Cup offseason without rehabilitation dictating every step of her preparation. The Slovak star spent her 31st birthday this week training on the Stelvio Glacier in Italy, posting photos from a summer camp that would have seemed far from certain just a year ago. After two knee surgeries, an emotional Olympic comeback in Milan-Cortina, and more than two years away from the World Cup circuit, Vlhová is now building toward a full return for the 2026-27 season.
“Back in my office
”
— Petra Vlhová on social media
And that is good news for ski racing. The women’s technical circuit has not been the same since Vlhová crashed during a giant slalom in her home resort of Jasná in January 2024. At the time, she was still one of the few athletes capable of consistently challenging Mikaela Shiffrin across an entire season. When she got hurt, Vlhová had collected three World Cup victories and seven podium finishes that season and sat second in the slalom standings just 25 points behind Mikaela Shiffrin. The Slovakian ski racer tore the ACL and MCL in her right knee, abruptly ending her season and her road back proved far more complicated than expected.
Vlhová returned to snow later in 2024 and began training again on the glaciers of Zermatt and Saas-Fee before suffering a setback that required a second surgery to address cartilage damage. What was initially expected to be a one-season recovery stretched into two years. By January 2026, however, Vlhová finally received medical clearance to return to full training intensity and announced an ambitious goal: making it back to the Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. At the time, she had not raced since her crash in Jasná more than two years earlier. Despite the extraordinarily short timeline, Slovakia included its biggest ski star in the Olympic team announced in January, giving the defending Olympic slalom champion a chance to complete one of the most unlikely comebacks of the Games.
Vlhová’s first competitive start came in the women’s team combined on February 10 — her first race since January 2024. The comeback ended quickly when she straddled a gate in the slalom portion of the event, but the result was almost beside the point. “Today was about the feeling, not about the results,” she said afterward. “I’m just proud.” Eight days later, she returned for the Olympic slalom in Cortina d’Ampezzo, the event in which she won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. This time she completed both runs, finishing 20th. It was nowhere near the podium standard she had set throughout her career, but for a skier who had spent two years fighting simply to get back to a start gate, it represented something far bigger than a result sheet. “I’ve been waiting for this moment for more than two years,” Vlhová wrote afterward. “It was one of those very proud days in life. Not because of how it turned out but because I never gave up.”
Now the focus shifts from comeback to getting ready for the 2026-27 season. In May this year, Vlhová appointed Austrian coach Mario Rafetzeder as her new head coach, stating on social media, “I am happy that I can once again build my team and surround myself with people with whom I will fight to return to the World Cup.” She added, “I believe that Mario is the right leader, who will enable us to compete fully with the best skiers in the world.”
Vlhová’s return to the World Cup circuit will be the most anticipated comeback in tech events. The Slovak star owns 31 World Cup victories and 73 World Cup podiums, won the overall World Cup title in 2020-21, captured the slalom crystal globes in 2019-20 and 2021-22, and claimed Olympic slalom gold at the 2022 Beijing Games. She is also a World Champion in giant slalom and one of only a handful of athletes to consistently challenge Mikaela Shiffrin across multiple seasons. Even Shiffrin has acknowledged what the World Cup circuit has been missing. “We’re missing somebody really big today. We missed Petra a lot,” Shiffrin said during Vlhová’s absence. “I’ve grown to love the battles with her.”
During Vlhová’s absence, Shiffrin continued rewriting the record books, winning nine of 10 World Cup slaloms during the 2025-26 season and claiming another overall title. While a new generation has emerged with skiers such as Emma Aicher and Camille Rast, no-one has come close to the consistency that Vlhová had against Shiffrin. Whether she can return to that level remains one of the biggest questions heading into winter, but if Petra Vlhová can get anywhere close to the form she showed before her crash in January 2024, the 2026-27 World Cup season is about to become a lot more interesting.