Shiffrin: Battling illness, no medal in slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin is feeling sick — again.
Looking to claim her second gold medal in as many days, and become the first woman to win gold in back-to-back Olympic slaloms, the 22-year-old American skiing superstar failed to even medal in the event she has long dominated, finishing a shocking and disappointing fourth in Pyeongchang.
Frida Hansdotter of Sweden (138.63) took gold, Wendy Holdener of Switzerland (138.68) claimed silver and Katharina Gallhuber of Austria (138.95) won bronze, while Shiffrin (139.03) was left off the podium of her favorite discipline, having vomited right before entering the gate for her first run Friday.
Four years ago in the Sochi Games, Shiffrin made history as the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history — she also claimed three gold medals in the event at the World Championships — but the Colorado native struggled after getting sick. Shiffrin was 0.48 seconds behind the leader Holdener after her first run, and seemed to feel the enormous pressure of being considered the heavy favorite for the past four years.
“It was kind of sudden, it almost felt like a virus kind of puking, less about nerves,” Shiffrin said after the first run. “0.48 isn’t super far off. … Same thing as yesterday, no holding back. Not much tactic that goes into it. Just put it all down the hill and see what happens.”
Shiffrin attempted to recreate the magic of the previous day, and took her customary nap before the second run — as she did between her gold medal-winning giant slalom runs — but faced a deficit too great to overcome.
Shiffrin started her second run strong, but encountered a few hiccups down the stretch, and learned she would not win gold instantly after crossing the finish line. Breathing heavily, she raised her hands in anger, with disbelief replacing the euphoria of roughly 24 hours earlier.
“Mikaela is such a talented skier, and she did so good [in the giant slalom], but for sure, it’s nice to beat her for once,” Hansdotter said. “She’s beaten me so many times.”
Despite being denied her audacious dream of medaling in five different events — weather postponements this week caused her to drop out of Saturday’s Super-G — Shiffin’s historic quest isn’t dead. It may have simply taken a detour.
Shiffrin can still stand atop the podium twice more, in the downhill (Feb. 21) and the alpine combined (Feb. 23), which would tie her for the most gold medals all-time among female alpine skiers, and give her a share of the lead for the most golds won by a woman in a single Games.
Shiffrin, who has the most World Cup victories (42) of any female skier ever before age of 23, still remains the top reason for Americans to alter their schedule over the next week, aligning late nights here with early afternoons there. Even if she doesn’t plant a forever flag in Pyeongchang, as Michael Phelps once did in Beijing, Shiffrin still can become the beaming face of a Winter Olympics, so often defined by strangers.
Shiffrin may never shake this memory, but she still has time to make everyone else forget.