Winter Games 2022
The dramatic crash of a superstar: Mikaela Shiffrin fails in her parade disciplines
Devastated: Mikaela Shiffrin also fails in the slalom after the giant slalom
© Robert F. Bukaty/DPA
The Winter Games in Beijing should be their big stage. US ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin wanted gold in slalom and giant slaom – and failed dramatically in both disciplines due to her own claims.
When the pressure is too great, especially the one you put on yourself, failure can be dramatic. Mikaela Shiffrin, the superstar among ski racers, apparently felt the same way. The 26-year-old sat in the snow on the Yanquing slope like a heap of misery and let her head hang. Only seconds earlier she had made a serious mistake for the second time in these Olympic Games, she, the big favorite for gold. She started the first round of the slalom final without concentrating and lost track after the fourth pole. In slalom this is disastrous. Even if you get going again, you can’t make up for lost time.
For Shiffrin it meant the premature end. Tears flowed later: “It’s not the end of the world,” she said. “But I think I have to question a lot now.” Because the mistake in the slalom was not her first at the Olympic Winter Games. A few days ago she made a fatal mistake in the giant slalom. Ironically, her dreams of a medal were shattered in her two parade disciplines.
Mikaela Shiffrin does not know such situations
The overall leader in the World Cup wanted to be one of the greats at these games, she wanted to make her mark on Beijing, now her only hope is to win a medal in the combined. In the Super G, in the downhill and in the team competition, where she also competes, she hardly has a chance.
She will try to press the reset button, she announced. “Maybe I’ll do better this time.” Even if she doesn’t know exactly how. The problem is: Shriffrin has never been in a comparable situation in the course of her successful career. For her it was always uphill, a crash is not planned. In 2014 she won gold in giant slalom, is a four-time world champion and has 47 World Cup victories – more than any other ski racer in any discipline.
Maybe she wanted too much:“Of course there’s a lot of pressure, but that wasn’t the biggest issue today,” she said. “I wanted to take the most aggressive line,” she analyzed her short run. Maybe she overdid it with her attack. “I started with a strong mentality – then I was out,” she said. “It’s disappointing.”
Biathlon, ski jumping, bobsledding, tobogganing: you are Germany’s gold hopes
12 images
Lindsey Vonn offers comfort
After all, she received encouragement from another superstar. “It doesn’t take anything away from her still outstanding career. This one race doesn’t change that,” Lindsey Vonn told NBC TV about Shiffrins Aus. Vonn, who retired in 2019, is the only one with 82 World Cup victories to be ahead of Shiffrin (73) in the all-time list of women’s best. They each have three medals at the Olympics – Shiffrin has two gold medals, and Vonn has one. If Shriffrin wants to win a medal in Beijing, she has to master the unfamiliar situation.