Mikaela Shiffrin entered the slalom portion of the Alpine combined race in fifth place on Thursday after an impressive downhill run and was looking to reverse her Olympic woes with a medal in her last individual race of the 2022 Beijing Games.
She had previously called her first races in Beijing a “failure,” and a podium finish would have been a fairy-tale ending and the ultimate redemption.
But it wasn’t to be.
The 26-year-old American crashed out of the race about 10 gates into the run and recorded her third “did not finish” at the Olympics. She appeared to be fighting tears on the side of the course after she picked herself up.
Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin ultimately won the gold, with her fellow countrywoman Wendy Holdener earning silver. Italy’s Federica Brignone won the bronze.
It has been an unexpectedly disappointing Olympics for Shiffrin. Already one of the most decorated skiers in the sport and one of the most recognizable athletes competing in the Winter Games, Shiffrin arrived in Beijing with sky-high expectations and all the attention that follows. She entered with three Olympic medals, and one more would tie Julia Mancuso for the most by an American woman in Alpine skiing. It felt inevitable she was bound for the history books.
But in Shiffrin’s first competition, the giant slalom, in which she was the defending gold medalist, she recorded an uncharacteristic DNF after skiing out just 11 seconds into the race.
Things went from bad to worse two days later in the slalom event, in which she was the favorite to win. Shiffrin had yet another DNF after just five seconds. She looked devastated as she sat alone for several minutes on the side of the course.
Shiffrin fared better in the super-G, in which she finished ninth, and the downhill, with an 18th-place finish, but for someone who was expected to win multiple medals, it was a disappointing string of results.
But on Thursday, she utilized her experience on the downhill from earlier in the week, as well as the fastest run in training on Wednesday, and recorded the fifth-best time (1:32.98) in the event. A medal seemed probable, perhaps even likely.
But Shiffrin had doubts. She was candid in an interview with NBC before the slalom run about how she was feeling entering what has long been considered her signature event.
“I’m not feeling totally confident with the slalom,” Shiffrin said. “I mean, I have a recurring image of myself skiing out on the fifth gate again, so I’m just going to do my best.”
In the end, she was unable to get past her nerves or lingering fears.
Shiffrin will have one last chance to earn an Olympic medal in Beijing on Saturday in the mixed team parallel slalom competition. She will become just the second woman in history to compete in all six alpine events in the Olympics, joining her rival Petra Vlhova, who did so in 2018, the first year of the team event.
