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YANQING, China — Mikaela Shiffrin is the best slalom skier within the historical past of her sport, and on Thursday afternoon, all she wanted was one clear run. One run to reverse the heartbreak of final week and go away Beijing golden.
She’d sped into fifth place after the downhill leg of Thursday’s mixed, forward of all different slalom specialists within the area. She wanted, merely, to finish a race she’d received extra usually than any girl, ever, together with on the Olympics as a teen.
She wanted to do the factor she’d spent a majority of her life making ready to do,
“It was,” she mentioned, “not truly that a lot to ask for.”
And for the second consecutive week, she couldn’t.
Shiffrin, who entered the 2022 Olympics with desires of a number of medals, failed to complete the slalom leg of Thursday’s mixed, her final particular person occasion. Her ski caught a gate, which despatched her tumbling to the snow, for the third time in three technical runs at these Video games.
And this got here after she’d already performed the onerous half. Her 1:32.98 within the downhill put her forward of her fellow slalomers by 0.13 (Federica Brignone), 0.43 (Wendy Holdener) and 0.44 (Michelle Gisin). The 4 ladies forward of her — led by Christine Scheyer, with a 0.56-second edge — had little to no slalom expertise.
However ever since snowboarding out of the enormous slalom and slalom final week, Shiffrin had had recurring nightmares about one other fifth-gate failure. “In idea, it’s a superb place to be,” she mentioned between Thursday’s runs. However “I’m not feeling completely assured with the slalom.”
And a model of these nightmares turned actuality. She made it previous the fifth gate. However not far. She spun towards the facet of the course. Her shoulders sunk.
A day earlier, she’d felt calm. Drained, however ready. Coaching “felt very nice,” she mentioned. On Thursday, in between runs, her slalom warmups “felt good.” Her begin was “wonderful.”
“After which,” she mentioned, “I used to be off the course once more.”
Shiffrin arrived in Yanqing with desires of a number of golds. She has none, and now has just one extra shot to medal, within the combined staff parallel occasion on Saturday. She’ll compete alongside Paula Moltzan, River Radamus and Tommy Ford. The U.S. will not be favored for gold, however might contend for a spot on the rostrum.
To Shiffrin, although, disappointment goes past medals. “Probably the most disappointing factor,” she mentioned, “is that I had a number of alternatives to ski slalom on this observe. And I — properly, you recognize — failed in all of them.”
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