Mikaela Shiffrin says she is dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder following a crash in November and will not defend her gold medal in giant slalom at the Alpine skiing world championships.

The American holder of a record 99 World Cup wins suffered a deep puncture wound when she fell in a giant slalom race on Nov. 30 in Killington, Vermont, causing severe trauma to her oblique muscles.

“I’m mentally blocked in being able to get to the next level of pace and speed and putting power into the turns,” Shiffrin said in an audio message shared with The Associated Press on Monday. “And that kind of mental, psychological like PTSD-esque struggle is more than I anticipated.

“I figured once we touched ground in Europe and we got a chance to get some repetitive training days, I would be able to improve step by step and sort of the passion and the longing for racing was going to outweigh any fear that I had,” she added.

Whatever stabbed Shiffrin in her fall at Killington nearly punctured her abdominal wall and her colon. She told The Associated Press last month that her injury was “a millimeter from pretty catastrophic.”

Shiffrin also had a high-speed crash in downhill in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, last season that kept her out for six weeks. She has discussed her fears with a psychologist, said Megan Harrod, Shiffrin’s spokeswoman.

On Instagram, Shiffrin wrote: “Honestly, I really didn’t anticipate experiencing so much of this kind of mental/PTSD struggle in GS from my injury.”

Olympic sports

Senator looks into U.S. Center for SafeSport

The chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee is looking into how a former police officer landed an investigator’s job at the U.S. Center for SafeSport despite sex-crime allegations that littered his past, while also asking if the center knew he had been accused of newer crimes when working there last year.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, sent a letter Monday to the sex-abuse watchdog’s CEO, giving her a month to answer 13 questions related to how the center missed red flags about former Allentown, Pennsylvania, vice officer Jason Krasley.

Krasley has been arrested multiple times over the past three months for crimes he allegedly committed between 2015 and 2024, including rape, sex trafficking, soliciting prostitution, theft and, most recently, harassment. The center hired him after he left his policing job in 2021 and before it knew of any of the allegations.

It fired Krasley in November after learning of his initial arrests, which were covered by local media looking into broader corruption inside the police department. Not until The Associated Press revealed in December that Krasley had joined SafeSport, which oversees sex-abuse allegations across America’s Olympic sports, was the connection involving the officer, the center and his termination from his job as an investigator there made public.

“Claimants and respondents alike deserve impartial, fair investigators who have not been accused of sexual misconduct of their own,” Grassley wrote in his letter to CEO Ju’Riese Colon, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.

“Investigators must be professionally and morally qualified to perform their duties,” the letter said. “Accusations of rape and other sex crimes against any SafeSport investigator are especially concerning given SafeSport’s mandate to protect athletes from similar abuse.”

A spokesperson for SafeSport said the center had received the letter and would respond to Grassley’s questions.

College basketball

Auburn stays No. 1 in men’s poll despite loss

Auburn’s run at No. 1 is still intact despite a loss to No. 3 Florida. UConn’s latest loss has dropped the two-time defending national champions out of the poll for the first time in two years.

The Tigers held the top spot in the poll for the fifth straight week Monday, receiving 34 first-place votes from a 61-person media panel. No. 2 Alabama moved up a spot and had 23 first-place votes, just nine points behind Auburn, while Florida earned three top votes and No. 5 Tennessee got one.

Duke was tied with Florida at No. 3, with No. 9 St. John’s moving into the top 10 for the first time since finishing the 1999-2000 season at No. 9.

UConn dropped out of the poll from No. 19 after a 68-62 home loss to St. John’s on Friday, ending the nation’s fourth-longest active streak of being ranked (53 weeks).

Notre Dame women are No. 2 after S. Carolina loss

Notre Dame moved up to No. 2 in The Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 on Monday for the Irish’s best ranking since 2019.

The Fighting Irish replaced South Carolina in the second spot behind UCLA after the Gamecocks lost 66-62 to Texas over the weekend. It is Notre Dame’s best ranking since the team was No. 1 on Jan. 21, 2019. The Bruins remained the unanimous No. 1 choice of the 31-member media panel.

The Longhorns climbed to third with their victory. South Carolina dropped to fourth after seeing its 57-game conference winning streak in the regular season come to an end.

No. 5 LSU and No. 6 USC followed the Gamecocks, each moving up one spot after UConn lost at then-No. 19 Tennessee last week. The Huskies fell two places to seventh. Tennessee, which lost to LSU on Sunday, moved up four spots to 15th.

BRIEFLY

Golf >> Tiger Woods abruptly withdrew from the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines on Monday, saying he was still processing the death of his mother. Kultida Woods died unexpectedly last Tuesday at the age of 80.

NBA >> Atlanta guard Trae Young is headed to the NBA All-Star Game after all, and Dallas guard Kyrie Irving has been picked once again as well. Young was added as an injury replacement for Milwaukee forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who will not be able to play because of a calf injury. Irving is the injury replacement for his Mavs teammate Anthony Davis, who is out through the All-Star break with a groin injury.

NBA >> The Los Angeles Clippers signed Ben Simmons on Monday, adding a former No. 1 overall pick who struggled to stay healthy and productive during 2 1/2 seasons with the Brooklyn Nets.

— From news services