Mikaela Shiffrin, the reigning Olympic gold medalist in the giant slalom, missed out on the event final after a disastrous start to her campaign at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
The 26-year-old Shiffrin crashed off the course and was disqualified early in her first run.
“I was attacking, and just a small mistiming of, kind of when I set my edges and just slipped out,” Shiffrin told NBC after her run. “It’s an amazing surface, it’s such amazing conditions, but you don’t have any room for some small errors or anything like that. I was pushing, so I’m really happy with that, but five gates into the course, that stinks.
"I'm sorry that that was the performance I did today but that also happens."
Mikaela Shiffrin reacts to her giant slalom race.
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“It’s hard not to dwell. Especially for me, I’m always dwelling on these kind of heart-breaking days. But I just cannot afford to spend or waste energy on something that is now in the past. It could’ve been a really beautiful day to be doing some good GS [giant slalom] racing, and that’s not the path I’m taking anymore this Olympics.”
It was the first time in 30 giant slalom races that Shiffrin did not finish a run.
In 2014, Shiffrin became the youngest person in history to win gold in slalom and was also the youngest skier, male or female, to reach 50 World Cup victories.
While it was a disappointing start to her time in Beijing, Shiffrin will look to bounce back and find her way to the podium in other disciplines.
