Sickly Shiffrin proves she’s human in defeat

Favored American has bug, misses slalom medal

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea— Mikaela Shiffrin is human after all.

The U.S. Alpine skiing sensation failed to medal her best event Friday, finishing fourth in the slalom at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

A day after opening her Games with a gold medal in the giant slalom at the Yongpyong Alpine Center, Shiffrin entered the slalom as the heavy favorite. She won the event four years ago in Sochi at age 18, becoming the youngest Olympic slalom medalist in history, and is the world’s top-ranked competitor in the event.

The gold medal seemed to be a forgone conclusion as the 22-year-old Shiffrin chased history at these Games.

Instead, Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter won the gold, Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener won silver and Austria’s Katharina Gallhuber captured bronze.

Minutes before her first run, Shiffrin vomited on the snow near a tangle of orange safety netting.

“It was kind of sudden. It almost felt like a virus kind of puking, less about nerves,” Shiffrin said between races.

She didn’t look like her usual self, finishing the first run almost a half-second behind leader Holdener in 49.37 seconds.

Shiffrin didn’t fare better in the second run, as her time increased to 49.66 seconds.

She is trying to become the first female U.S. Alpine skier to win three medals in one Olympics and the first U.S. Alpine skier of either gender with three career gold medals.

After winning the giant slalom Thursday, Shiffrin kept a conservative schedule. She took a nap, had dinner, then accepted her gold medal from Liechtenstein’s Princess Nora during a ceremony at the Pyeongchang Medals Plaza.

Shiffrin skipped the usual commitments for U.S. gold medalists—sitting down for a one-on-one interview with NBC, celebrating at the U.S. house, a follow-up news conference at the Main Press Center—because of her ambitious program that still includes the downhill and combined.

Still, the medal ceremony kept her up until about 10 p.m. rather than going to bed at 8:30 p.m. as usual.

“It certainly was not normal preparation, but I knew going into these Olympics it’s not normal races and not normal preparation,” Shiffrin said.

And it didn’t lead to a normal result.

Morry Gash The Associated Press Entering the event as the heavy favorite, Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States finishes fourth in the women’s slalom Friday at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.