Shiffrin gets silver in Vonn’s last race
JEONGSEON, South Korea — With the snow carefully descending under the artificial lights lining the course at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre, two of America’s greatest women skiers went in different directions at the women’s combined event.
Lindsey Vonn’s Olympic career came to a screeching halt, and Mikaela Shiffrin earned another medal in the prime of her career.
Shiffrin already was assured of earning her third career medal, each in a different event, when Vonn prepared to propel herself out of the starting gate as the final starter in the final race of her Olympic career.
This slalom portion of the two-leg Alpine combined would be the first — and only — time Vonn, 33, and U.S. teammate Shiffrin, 22, would compete against each other at any Olympics. Could Vonn possibly summon a “miracle,” as she called it, a slalom performance from somewhere in her past to make a lead from the downhill portion stand up? Could Shiffrin hold onto her silver?
The drama quickly dimmed. Vonn’s slalom lasted all of about 10 seconds before she went off-course, leaving Shiffrin in second place Thursday between two women from Switzerland: gold medalist Michelle Gisin and bronze medalist Wendy Holdener.
Still, Shiffrin added the combined silver to her giantslalom gold from a week earlier, giving her two medals — plus a surprisingly low fourthplace finish in the slalom — in three races. She arrived in South Korea to chatter about entering five, but after a series of weather-related schedule changes, wound up dropping two.
“It’s really nice to be at the end of it,” she said, “and know that I do have two medals.”
With her slalom gold from the 2014 Games, Shiffrin joins Bode Miller and Julia Mancuso as the only Americans with a medal in each of at least three Alpine disciplines.
Eight years ago, Vonn went to the Vancouver Olympics accompanied by outsize anticipation and unrealistic speculation (by others) about four or five medals. She, too, collected two, then missed the Sochi Olympics after tearing knee ligaments.
At what she has said must be her last Olympics because her oft-injured body cannot endure another four years, Vonn added a bronze Wednesday in the downhill, one of the races Shiffrin elected to skip to conserve energy.
After Vonn’s slalom ended suddenly, she crossed paths with Shiffrin in the finish area. They had a brief exchange.
“I mean, it’s incredible what she’s able to accomplish. She’s so young and she approaches ski racing much different than pretty much anyone else,” Vonn said later. “I think she had potential to do a lot more at these Games, but at the same time — same like me, you can’t expect everything all the time.”
So, then, there they were as the sun settled behind the clouds, the temperature dipped and the last individual Alpine race of the Pyeongchang Games concluded. Yes, there is a team event Saturday, but neither Vonn nor Shiffrin is expected to enter, as is the case with the rest of the sport’s biggest names, who would prefer to take a break before returning to the World Cup circuit.
Shiffrin is the best female skier of today, chasing a second consecutive overall title; Vonn is the best female skier in history, just five World Cup race wins away from tying Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time record of 86.
Tears gathered in Vonn’s eyes as she spoke about wishing she could be at Beijing in 2022, but knowing “that’s just not the way it is,” because, she explained, “my mind is still telling me I can do things that my body is telling me I can’t.”
It was an emotional Olympics for Vonn, whose grandfather — a Korean War veteran who was instrumental to her development as a skier — died in November. She dedicated her performance to Don Kildow, happy to have won at least one medal in his name.
On Thursday, Vonn revealed she recently scattered some of her grandfather’s ashes on a rock near the mountain where the downhill races were run.
“I know that it would mean a lot to him to be back here, a part of him is in South Korea always,” said Vonn, who met with a group of elderly South Korean men, who gave her family some gifts and a letter of thanks to mark her grandfather’s service during the 195053 Korean War.
“To be able to race for him in these Olympics was very special for me. And I tried everything I could to win for him,” Vonn said. “I got a bronze, which, you know, to me, was very special. And I think he would be proud of that.”