BEIJING — Mikaela Shiffrin has changed her outlook, if not her results.
Shiffrin arrived in Beijing expected to win multiple medals and cement her status as one of the most decorated American skiers in history. But things didn’t go her way during the first week of competition as she recorded uncharacteristic “Did Not Finish” results in grand slalom and slalom, her two best events, and a ninth-place result in super-G.
She told reporters on Monday she wasn’t going to think about medals anymore, and would simply focus on her “best execution” in her remaining two races, starting with Tuesday’s downhill competition (Monday night PT).
The result was more of the same for the 26-year-old American. Competing 12th in a field of 36, in windy conditions and frigid temperatures, Shiffrin’s time of 1:34.36 was the 11th-best result at the time she posted it. By the time the event was over, she had dropped to 18th and was 2.49 seconds behind gold medalist Corinne Suter of Switzerland. Sofia Goggia and Nadia Delago, both of Italy, earned the silver and bronze.
Still, unlike some of the heartbreaking scenes from her previous races, Shiffrin smiled and waved to the camera after her run and remained by the finish line as the other skiers competed, even posing for pictures with some fellow competitors.
“Once again today, it was super fun,” Shiffrin said in a post-race interview on NBC. “The speeds are definitely a little bit up and there’s a bit more wind playing around so some spots you get a tailwind, some spots you get wind into your face. I haven’t experienced that so much in downhill so I was a little bit like, ‘What do I do with this?’ But I still felt strong with my skiing. Of course my technical skiing feels pretty on point, and again it’s another day of really good experience.”
It was Shiffrin’s Olympic debut in the event and her first time competing in a downhill race since December. She had said she felt confident during her training runs the past few days and was excited at an opportunity to compete in the event.
Shiffrin is one of the most high-profile athletes at the Olympics and there was much buzz from fans and those around the sport about her ability to win the third gold medal of her career, which would be the most by an American alpine skier in Olympic history.
She has 47 World Cup victories in slalom – more than any other person in any race – and 14 in giant slalom, with four in super-G and two in downhill.
Another Olympic podium appearance of any kind would tie her with Julia Mancuso for the most medals by an American woman in the sport. She was well aware of the expectations and has been candid about her struggles during these Olympics.
An interview following her super-G race went viral as she discussed the outpouring of support she had received.
“I would never have expected to feel in this moment – severely underperforming in an Olympics – I would never have felt that humans could be so kind,” she said. “I never would’ve expected that the most surprising thing of my Olympic experience is how kind people have been in the face of my failure. I mean, it is failure. It’s OK to say that. I am OK with that and I’m sorry for it, but I also was trying and I’m proud of that.”
Shiffrin still will have one more shot to win a medal at these Games in Thursday’s combined race (Wednesday night PT), which includes a downhill run and a slalom run. She earned silver in the event in 2018 and will be able to use her experience from Tuesday’s downhill competition in the event.
Following the downhill race, she said she was feeling upbeat heading into Thursday’s event.
“We’ll see,” Shiffrin said on the broadcast. “There’s a couple of women who have a really good shot for strong downhill runs and then also really strong slalom runs so I don’t feel that anything is guaranteed. Not at all, especially not after the last couple of weeks but I think I have a shot so that’s really nice. I’ll go for it and we’ll see.”
Suter, a 27-year-old who injured both of her legs just before the start of the season, edged Goggia by 0.16 seconds on The Rock course. She is the only skier to beat Goggia in a downhill over the last two seasons, and she got the best of the defending Olympic champion again.
“It’s my biggest dream in my life, so today I don’t know what to say,” Suter said. “In the finish, I wasn’t sure if it was good or not, because sometimes I had the feeling that there was wind against me, and then with me, and also from the side.”
Suter said this week that she had been on crutches for a month and in constant pain after the fall. Shortly after returning to racing in December, she posted a picture of herself in tears taken not long after the incident.
Goggia hurt her left knee about a month ago in Cortina d’Ampezzo but still managed to take the lead by nearly half a second when she set off shortly before Suter. She let out a lengthy roar after crossing the line and then kissed a television camera.
“I gave everything I could. I was really happy with my skiing. I felt like the speed was there in the upper part because I was really jumping a lot everywhere,” Goggia said. “I’m sorry for the last part. I felt like maybe there’d been some parts of the slope I had some wind against me, but it’s something you cannot control.
“In the end, I’m happy with my result, because being here at the Olympics after my crash in Cortina was not guaranteed at all.”
Goggia has dominated the downhill in recent seasons and would have been the favorite if not for getting injured during a super-G in Cortina. The 29-year-old Italian partially tore a ligament in her left knee and sustained a minor fracture in that leg, along with tendon damage.
Goggia had won the last eight World Cup downhills she finished, a streak that began in December 2020, when she was beaten by Suter. Suter also won the last downhill race before the Olympics.
Suter is the first woman since Lindsey Vonn to hold the Olympic and world championship titles in downhill at the same time.
Bronze medalist Delgado finished 0.57 behind Suter. She was briefly in the lead and appeared to be sobbing in disbelief after she crossed the line. She then hugged her older sister Nicol, who had finished a short time earlier.
“It’s so special that we are here together. My first Olympics with her, it’s unbelievable,” said Nadia Delago, who had never been on the podium in a World Cup race or major championship. “We help each other, and I’m so grateful that we came here together.”
Ester Ledecka failed in her second attempt to win a second event at a second straight Olympics. Ledecka started fifth and was leading but slipped and struggled to stay up. She managed to right herself but finished more than six seconds slower than Suter.
Ledecka became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games with her surprise victory in the super-G four years ago. She successfully defended her gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom last week but finished fifth in the super-G.
The race was halted for about 15 minutes after Camille Cerutti crashed. The French skier lost control after a jump and slid a long way down the slope, loudly screaming the whole time. She was taken off the mountain on a sled.
An hour before the scheduled start of the race, the wind was whipping at about 15 mph, with gusts topping 25 mph at the top of the hill. The start was delayed for 30 minutes because of the wind.
News services contributed to this story.