NO MEDAL FOR MIKAELA
COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE OLYMPICS
EagleVail’s Mikaela Shiffrin appears frustrated after her final run in the slalom in the Winter Games at PyeongChang on Friday. Shiffrin finished fourth the day after winning the gold in the giant slalom. She won the slalom title at Sochi four years ago at age 18.
PYEONGCH A NG» Mikaela Shiffrin makes it all looks so easy sometimes. For the world’s most dominant female ski racer, the trip from the starting gate to the medals podium is a well-trodden path.
Friday morning offered a stern reminder for Shiffrin and the world just how difficult this medal pursuit could be, how difficult it will be to leave PyeongChang with a suitcase full of gold. Less than 24 hours after winning the Olympic title in the giant slalom, EagleVail’s Shiffrin was back on the course at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre to defend her Olympic gold in the slalom.
But things don’t always go as planned, and in her most dominant and consistent discipline, Shiffrin finished Friday’s slalom in a disappointing fourth place, endangering her hopes of leaving here with multiple medals. Shiffrin’s total time of 1:39.03 was 0.40 seconds behind first-place finisher Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter and just 0.08 seconds away from a spot on the podium.
She seemed to know from the start of the day that something was amiss. Before her first run, Shiffrin stood at the top of the course and vomited before launching down the hill. She chuckled as she told NBC that “it almost felt like a virus kind of puking, less about nerves, I mean, but we’ll see.”
Shiffrin has been open about her competitive anxieties and her ongoing battle with nerves. Last season she sought the help of Lauren Loberg, a sports psychologist who works with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard As-
sociation. “I get so nervous; I was throwing up last year,” Shiffrin told The Washington Post before the Olympics. “It’s like, the races I’m supposed to win, I worry about what happens if I don’t. Who am I letting down? My family? The media? What’s the media going to say if I don’t win?”
In her best discipline and with an empty stomach, she wasn’t her usual dominant self Friday morning and clocked a time of 49.37 seconds, the fourth-best of the day’s initial runs. Entering the second run, she trailed Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener by 0.48 seconds, not an insurmountable margin by any means, but also not her preferred position.
She posted a time of 49.66 seconds in her second run — 0.39 seconds slower than her first. She was the fourth-tolast competitor and could only watch as two of the final three races posted faster total times, bumping her from a spot on the podium.