CO Olympian Mikaela Shiffrin Fails To Finish First Two Ski Events

BEIJING, CHINA —Colorado resident Mikaela Shiffrin's difficult start to the 2022 Winter Olympics continued Wednesday when the 26-year-old skier skidded and missed the fifth gate about 5 seconds into her first run in the two-leg slalom.

Just like that, Shiffrin, who won the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games, recorded a "Did Not Finish." It was Shiffrin's second DNF in three days.

On Monday, in her first race of the Olympics, Shiffrin fell five turns and about 10 seconds into the giant slalom, putting her out in the event that she won at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

After her second DNF on Wednesday, Shiffrin went to the side of the course, got out of her skis and sat on the ground, shaking her head. According to the Associated Press, NBC drew criticism on social media because its cameras lingered on the distraught Shiffrin —who had entered the Games as one of the U.S.'s biggest stars.

Later, when speaking to the media, Shiffrin struggled to come to terms with her two mishaps.

"I've never been in this position before and I don't know how to handle it," said Shiffrin, who has 47 career World Cup wins in the slalom, more than anyone else has won in any single event.

Shiffrin — who was born in Vail, spent much of her youth in Vermont and now lives in Edwards —had arrived in Beijing with plans to enter all five individual races.

But when asked about Friday's super-G event, Shiffrin did not seem so sure she would compete.

"It would be a pleasure to ski. But I also have some teammates who are really fast, and we have the athletes who can fill the spaces. So if I'm going to ski out on the fifth gate, like, what's the point?" Shiffrin said Wednesday.

Shiffrin had been hoping to become just the second woman to win at least one gold medal from Alpine at three straight Olympics.

However, her journey to the Beijing games has been a rocky one.

In Feb. 2020, Jeff Shiffrin, Mikaela's father, died at age 65 in an accident at the family home in Colorado. According to the AP, Jeff Shiffrin had been instrumental in his daughter's skiing career, helping her develop original training and workout methods using his background in clinical science.

Jeff Shiffrin also taught Mikaela the importance of focusing and staying in the moment, according to the AP.

"Right now, I would really like to call him, so that doesn't make it easier. And he would probably tell me to just get over it. But he's not here to say that. So on top of everything else, I'm pretty angry at him, too," Mikaela Shiffrin said with a laugh.

At the start of the year, Mikaela Shiffrin also was briefly sidelined from competition after testing positive for COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Shiffrin searched for answers as to why she's had such a tough start in Beijing. However, she said she didn't think the pressure of the moment had gotten to her.

"I was trying to kind of look back and think about the last days and what I've been trying to do and what I've been doing with my skiing that would suggest that on the fifth gate I would push myself a little bit too hard to actually stay on the course," Shiffrin said, according to ESPN. "There's nothing that could have suggested that. I didn't not finish a single (warmup) run. My skiing has been really solid.

"My entire career has taught me to trust in my skiing if it's good skiing. And that's all that I have to rely on these race days. And when the pressure is high, of course the pressure is high, but that didn't feel like the biggest issue today."

This article originally appeared on the Denver Patch