Mikaela Shiffrin places 18th in Olympic downhill event

Even with a 30 minute delay, temperatures at Yanqing Nationwide Alpine Snowboarding Heart had been colder than a Michael Jackson moonwalk for Tuesday’s downhill, and Corinne Suter was the “clean prison,” stealing the gold medal from Sofia Goggia and within the course of, breaking apart an Italian podium sweep within the signature Alpine occasion on the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Beginning within the thirteenth place, the defending downhill world champion navigated the two,704 meter hill in -20.4 levels Celsius temperatures, turning into the primary individual since Lindsey Vonn to win the World Championship and Olympic title within the occasion in consecutive years. Suter had proven wonderful type coming into the Video games, successful the ultimate World Cup occasion earlier than Beijing.

Goggia, the defending Olympic champion, settled for silver and her teammate Nadia Delago shocked prognosticators along with her gorgeous bronze run.

Mikaela Shiffrin, racing in her fourth occasion of the Video games, was not capable of finding pace within the chilly, grippy snow, ending 18th. Keely Cashman was the highest American in seventeenth.

It was Shiffrin’s first profession Olympic downhill. The 26-year-old’s Olympic golds have come within the slalom (2014) and large slalom (2018), with a silver within the mixed (2018). She has simply two World Cup wins within the occasion.

The Edwards resident entered the Beijing Video games with hopes of presumably turning into essentially the most adorned feminine Alpine skier in historical past. She solely wanted one medal to tie Julia Mancuso for essentially the most medals (4) be an American feminine Alpine skier. After snowboarding out of her first two specialties at these Video games, nevertheless, Shiffrin instructed the media earlier than the downhill that she is shifting her focus away from inserting. “I’m not focusing on the medal anymore. It’s just trying to do my best execution every day. Anyway, that’s my best shot at a medal,“ she said to the Associated Press on Monday.

After the second time test, Shiffrin had closed the hole to first place to 0.05 seconds, however she misplaced time within the Haituo Bowl and Canyon, finally ripping by the 37 gates in 1:34.36, 2.49 seconds off of Suter’s mark.

The canceling of Sunday’s coaching session allowed Shiffrin to take her first day without work in roughly two and a half weeks. “It was good to get some relaxation, some restoration, a little bit little bit of sort of a energy session in and get the muscle priming,” she instructed the Related Press.

Since 1948, solely two non-European skiers have ever gained the downhill — Kerrin-Lee Gartner of Canada and Lindsey Vonn (2010) of the U.S. — a distinction which can proceed after Tuesday morning’s end result.

Sofia Goggia was trying to develop into the second athlete after German Katja Seizinger to efficiently defend the Olympic downhill title. Although she is presently the World Cup self-discipline chief, her buildup to the Video games has been shaky. She suffered a crash in Cortina on Jan. 23 that triggered a pressure of the left knee, partial tear of the cruciate ligament (one thing she already had broken in 2013), and a “small fibula fracture,” in line with Italian Ski Federation press officers. It ended up forcing her out of the super-G altogether, and even within the observe classes, it was a victory for the 29-year-old to easily get to the underside.

“I’m glad I might ski nicely as we speak, and I’m glad I may very well be at first gate as a result of it wasn’t assured in any respect after what occurred in Cortina round 15 days in the past,” she told the Olympic press.

“So it’s good, in fact it was a extremely robust interval to get right here, to get better so quick, this is the reason my situation continues to be not that optimum however I’ve to cope with that, it’s not an issue, until it’s in your thoughts.”

Goggia was twelfth and fourth within the two coaching runs. When she completed her run and took the lead, she set free a primal scream. For a a quick second, the Italians held all three podium locations.

It was Goggia’s teammate Elena Curtoni who established the early lead. Not one of the first early skiers had been capable of match the Italian former junior world champion’s Canyon part. Then, the Delago sisters went back-to-back, with Nicol executing a decent run earlier than her sister, who has by no means achieved a World Cup podium in her 4 season profession, busted out the run of a lifetime. The Delago’s come from a household of skiers — their grandpa and grandma each competed within the World Championships within the 1980’s.

The following occasion on the ladies’s Alpine calendar is the mixed on Feb. 17.