Mikaela Shiffrin may not continue competing in Beijing after slalom crash
The 26-year-old US star missed a gate early in her run, two days after she suffered a similar fate in the women’s giant-slalom.
Mikaela Shiffrin cast doubt on her continued quest to win multiple medals at the Beijing Olympics after crashing out of the women’s slalom at Yanqing on Wednesday.
The 26-year-old US star missed a gate early in her run, two days after she suffered a similar fate in the women’s giant-slalom, and said she will now consider whether to compete in her remaining three events.
“I will try to re-set again but I don’t know how to do better,” said Shiffrin. “I have never been in this position before and I don’t know how to handle it.
“The hill and the ski track looks pretty incredible and I think it will be a pleasure to ski but I also have some team-mates who are really fast and we have the athletes who can fill the spaces, so if I am going to ski out on the fifth gate, what’s the point?”
Shiffrin, the overall World Cup leader who boasts 73 all-time alpine World Cup wins, had arrived in China targeting medals in five events.
Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, the winner of the overall World Cup slalom title, took the gold medal, moving up from eighth after her first run to win by 0.08 seconds from Katharina Liensberger of Austria, with Wendy Holdener of Switzerland taking bronze.
Prior to her giant-slalom setback, Shiffrin had failed to finish a race only twice in four years, and only 13 times in her 228-career World Cup starts.
Shiffrin added: “I was pushing out of the start. I had full intentions of skiing as hard as I could.
“I slipped up a little bit on one turn and I just didn’t give myself room to make any kind of error like that. I was planning to go on the most aggressive line, the most challenging line to ski.
“(I feel) pretty awful. But it won’t last for ever. I just feel pretty low right now.”
