US Olympic star Mikaela Shiffrin skies out in slalom disaster

Mikaela Shiffrin’s second shot at a medal didn’t go any better than the first. It ended even quicker and was perhaps even more of a stunner in her top event.

The American star turned in another Olympic shocker Wednesday morning in Yanqing, skiing out of the course just seconds into her first run of the slalom race — the same result she faced two days earlier in the giant slalom.

As Shiffrin took a turn around the fourth gate, one of her skis kicked out too wide, forcing her off line and unable to continue in the tight course — which had been set by her coach Mike Day, according to reports.

Shiffrin, who won gold in the slalom in Sochi in 2014 and is a four-time slalom world champion, appeared to be in disbelief as she sat off to the side of the course with her skis off and her head in her arms. She remained there for an extended period, eventually joined by a coach, while the competition continued.

“I think I just slipped,” an emotional Shiffrin later said on NBC. “I had every intention to go full gas. There wasn’t really space in the course to slip, not even a little bit. I didn’t give myself space for that. In my experience, that mentality has brought my best skiing. Today I went out on the fifth gate. So, yeah.”

It marked the first time Shiffrin recorded a “Did Not Finish” in consecutive technical races on the senior level since December 2011, NBC reported.

The 26-year-old Shiffrin was widely expected to be a favorite in the slalom along with her top rival, Petra Vlhova of Slovakia. Vlhova wound up claiming the gold medal, coming through with a blistering second run to fend off Austria’s Katharina Liensberger by eight one-hundredths of a second. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland won bronze.

Instead, Shiffrin will try to pick up a medal elsewhere, with three possible events left — the Super G (up next on Friday), downhill and combined. Coming into the Games, Shiffrin had said she planned to compete in all five Alpine events, as she tried to become the first American Alpine skier to win a third career gold medal.

But on Wednesday, Shiffrin said she was still processing what had just happened in the slalom race.

“Makes me second guess the last 15 years, everything I thought I knew about my own skiing and slalom and racing mentality,” Shiffrin said on the broadcast. “Just processing a lot for sure. And I feel really bad. There’s a lot more going on today than just my little situation. But I feel really bad for doing that.”

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Shiffrin, one of the most dominant female Alpine skiers, had won gold in the giant slalom and a silver in the combined in Pyeongchang in 2018.

Shiffrin’s 2022 Olympics had gotten off to a nightmare start on Monday, when she lost an edge early in her first run in the giant slalom and missed a gate, disqualifying her from competition. She said the disappointing result would stick with her, but vowed to move on so as to not let it affect the rest of her races.

Since coming home with two medals in the 2018 Games, Shiffrin has had to endure a difficult road back to the 2022 Games. Her father, Jeff, died in an accident in February 2020, after which Shiffrin took some time off from skiing. Then, late in 2021, she battled a nagging back issue and also tested positive for COVID-19 in December.