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Whereas Mikaela Shiffrin did not medal within the girls’s super-G on Thursday night time, her run was nonetheless a worthwhile one.
The 2-time gold medalist and three-time medalist had a nightmarish begin to the 2022 Winter Video games. She skied out throughout her first run in each the slalom and giant slalom, the latter of which she was the reigning Olympic champion in.
For some perspective, the final time Shiffrin failed to complete consecutive technical races was in December 2011, when she was 16 years outdated (H/T USA TODAY).
After that 10-plus-year streak got here to an finish, Shiffrin was left second-guessing her own skiing and racing mentality. So when the now 26-year-old completed her first-ever Olympic super-G run with a time of 1:14.30, which earned her a ninth-place finish, she was in a position to breathe an enormous sigh of reduction.
“It was fairly an enormous reduction,” Shiffrin stated. “After the final days, what I anticipated from the sensation of the course will not be the way it went. I skied slightly little bit of super-G yesterday and went for the race at present, and it felt very nice. It’s the one factor that makes slightly little bit of sense, that how I believed the path was going to run, and the way it would possibly really feel, was just about the way it did, and I used to be in a position to deal with it, which I used to be questioning rather a lot the final days.
“In the present day I proved to myself that I can nonetheless belief my instincts a bit. That’s actually, actually big.”
Shiffrin acquired an outpouring of assist as she went by one of many lowest moments of her aggressive profession, with fellow American Olympic stars like Lindsey Vonn and Simone Biles sharing messages of encouragement. And to Shiffrin, that is really been “essentially the most shocking” side of her Olympic expertise.
“I don’t really feel like I deserve it,” Shiffrin stated of the assist. “It’s been insane how many individuals have reached out and simply making an attempt to cheer me up. Each time somebody sends a message, I’m simply considering you don’t should waste your time on me as a result of I’m going to be high-quality. I’ve Olympic medals, I’ve nice success, a number of triumphant moments, and lots to be completely satisfied about over the past years.
“I might by no means have anticipated to really feel on this second, severely underperforming in Olympics, I might have by no means have felt that people might be so sort. It’s essentially the most shocking factor of my Olympic expertise — how sort folks have been within the face of my failure. It’s failure. It’s OK to say that, I’m OK with that. And I’m sorry for it, however I additionally was making an attempt, and I’m happy with that.”
Shiffrin had been hoping to compete in all 5 particular person alpine snowboarding occasions in Beijing, however whether or not she winds up doing that’s nonetheless up within the air.
The subsequent occasion Shiffrin might partake in is the downhill, which takes place on Monday, Feb. 14. She stated will undergo the downhill coaching classes scheduled for the following few days earlier than making a call on whether or not she is going to compete.
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