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BEIJING (AP) – Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin’s first journey down the race hill on the Beijing Video games lasted simply 5 turns and mere seconds Monday, ending in a disqualification from the opening leg of the large slalom that she referred to as “an enormous disappointment.”
The seventh racer on a course often known as The Ice River on the Yanqing Alpine Snowboarding Heart, and the defending champion, the 26-year-old American misplaced management coming round a left-turn gate, slid and fell on her facet. Ultimately, she received up and stopped on the facet of slope, caught her poles within the snow and put her fingers on her hips.
“The day was completed, principally,” Shiffrin stated, “earlier than it even began.”
She nonetheless may have a handful of probabilities over the subsequent two weeks to change into the primary Alpine ski racer from the US to win three Olympic golds throughout a profession. Shiffrin hopes to enter all 5 particular person occasions in Beijing.
“I’m not going to cry about this,” she stated, “as a result of that’s simply losing power.”
Not lengthy after her aggressive day was performed hours sooner than anticipated, Shiffrin headed again out to do some coaching for the slalom.
That’s her subsequent occasion, scheduled for Wednesday. Shiffrin gained that at age 18 on the 2014 Sochi Video games, a part of a exceptional profession that features a whole of three Olympic medals — there was a silver within the mixed on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games, along with her triumph within the large slalom there — three World Cup general titles and a half-dozen world championship golds.
“Like you may see, something can occur and it occurs actually, actually shortly,” she stated Monday.
Shiffrin didn’t seem overly dejected or emotional by the point she got here down the mountain and spoke to reporters. Then she hugged teammate Nina O’Brien and congratulated her on her sixth-place run.
Shiffrin arrived in China as one of the most-watched athletes in any sport on the Winter Olympics, a celebrity who has dominated ski racing for lengthy stretches lately.
Shiffrin has spoken openly about the pressure created by the weight of expectations — her personal, after all, and people of followers, but additionally coaches, family and friends. She is also upfront in regards to the burden of coping with the accidental death of her father, Jeff, two years in the past.
The large slalom was the primary ladies’s Alpine race on the schedule in Beijing, and Shiffrin’s first take a look at. After slipping, she tried to proper herself, but it surely was too late.
Shiffrin was hardly the one racer to come across hassle Monday: She was considered one of 19 of the 80 starters who failed to complete the primary run. Solely skiers who full that get an opportunity to go within the second run, scheduled for later Monday.
Marta Bassino of Italy, who gained the World Cup large slalom title final season and went two spots sooner than Shiffrin on Monday, fell on her left hip, slid down and spun round.
Sara Hector of Sweden — who leads the GS standings this season — led the best way with a first-run time of 57.56 seconds, adopted by Katharina Truppe of Austria at 57.86 and Federica Brignone of Italy at 57.98. Brignone was the bronze medalist within the large slalom 4 years in the past.
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AP Sports activities Author Daniella Matar and AP Nationwide Author Howard Fendrich contributed to this report.
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Extra AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Copyright 2022 The Related Press. All rights reserved.
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