Mikaela Shiffrin's second DNF at BeijingOlympics even more shocking than her first

That’s the sum total of Mikaela Shiffrin’s performance so far at the Beijing Olympics, a Games where she was expected to contend for multiple medals. Two days after skiing out in the first run of the giant slalom, Shiffrin did the same in the first run of the slalom Wednesday.

Afterward, she sat in the snow for several minutes, crying and looking despondent. These were her two best events, races in which she has won gold medals, and she didn’t even get through the first run. It’s the first time she has failed to finish back-to-back technical races since December 2011, when she was 16 years old.

“We came all this way. We’re not done yet but GS and slalom, those were my biggest focuses, so it really feels like a lot of work for nothing,” Shiffrin said afterward, still appearing shell-shocked. “(People) will try to say, 'This happens’ and 'It’s OK’ and 'Don’t be too hard on yourself’ and all of that, but it is a lot of work for a grand total of five gates in the GS and five gates in the slalom. So that is not lost on me.

“It feels like everything,” she added, “but it’s not.”

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Shiffrin had called her DNF on Monday a “huge disappointment” and that she would never get over it, just as she’s never gotten over other races where she didn’t finish. But she also knew she couldn’t dwell on it because she had other races still to come.

Shiffrin said she felt her preparation the last two days was good, and she felt as if she was in a good frame of mind. Yet just as she did Monday, she got off balance going around the fourth gate and skied off after the fifth.

She’d been on the course for a little more than six seconds, a few seconds less than Monday.

Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States skis out in the first run of the women's slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Mikaela Shiffrin, of the United States skis out in the first run of the women's slalom at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
ROBERT F. BUKATY, AP
Asked what had happened, Shiffrin started to speak, paused, then shut her
eyes before looking back at the course.

“I was pushing,” she said, speaking haltingly, “and maybe it was just past my limit. I had the intention to do my best skiing and my quickest turns. But in order to do that I had to push the line, the tactics, and it’s really on the limit then and there’s not space to slip up even a little bit.

“I don’t know. I started with a strong mentality and then I was out of the course. And that was, well, disappointing.”

Shiffrin was expected to be one of the biggest stars in Beijing, not only for the Americans but for the entire Games. She has three medals from her first two Olympics, two of them gold, and is widely considered one of, if not the best, technical skiers of all time.

But the Olympics has not always been kind to the best U.S. skiers. Bode Miller has six Olympic medals, but only one of them is gold. Lindsey Vonn has more World Cup victories than anyone but Ingemar Stenmark and 20 season titles, yet has just one Olympic gold medal and two bronzes.

Vonn’s downhill victory at the 2010 Vancouver Games is considered by those who aren’t diehard ski racing fans to be her signature achievement. Yet she also had DNF in three races those Olympics.

Mikaela Shiffrin after skiing out of the women's slalom during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Mikaela Shiffrin after skiing out of the women's slalom during the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
ANDREW P. SCOTT-USA TODAY SPORTS
“Gutted for Mikaela Shiffrin but this does not take away from her storied career and what she can and will accomplish going forward. Keep your
head high,” Vonn said on Twitter, ending the post with a heart emoji.

Shiffrin has spoken in the past about being rattled by others’ expectations of her, and the wish she has of not disappointing anyone. No doubt some will question whether that is a factor here, though Shiffrin said she didn’t think so.

“My skiing has been really solid,” she said. “My entire career has taught me to trust in my skiing. If it’s good skiing, that’s all I have to rely on these race days. And when the pressure is high – of course the pressure is high, but that didn’t feel like the biggest issue today – when there is pressure and there’s some nerves and the feeling that I want to do well, I always just go back to that fundamental idea that good skiing will be there for me.

“It’s not the end of the world. And it’s so stupid to care this much,” Shiffrin said, choking back tears. “But I feel I have to question a lot now.”

There are still three races left: the super-G, the Alpine combined and the downhill. While Shiffrin didn’t rule out competing in all three, she didn’t rule it in, either, saying the U.S. team has others who are just as capable.

“And if I’m going to ski out on the fifth gate,” she said, “what’s the point?”

“It’s hard to know what exactly went wrong,” Shiffrin said later, “aside from I slipped up a bit on one turn and I didn’t have enough space to recover from it.”

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Mikaela Shiffrin on and off the slopes
Mikaela Shiffrin is hoping to enter all five individual Alpine skiing races at the Beijing Olympics.
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