The big star of alpine skiing Mikaela Shiffrin ended her individual participation in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics with a new disappointment. The American failed to finish the slalom of the alpine combination, in which she was declared a clear favorite and thus was left empty-handed from the individual starts in China.
After the final today, she said that she could not explain her elimination, because she did not press 110%, nor did she just be careful to reach the final successfully.
“I’m fine, thank you for not asking what happened! Is this your next question?”, the American started her interview for Eurosport in a joking tone. “This is the question you want to be answered, and so am I. I can’t understand what was wrong with me in these competitions, especially today. In the giant slalom and slalom, I felt that maybe I was pushing too hard and I couldn’t get into the rhythm. I was more relaxed today, and I told myself I would start pushing gradually, with each door. I didn’t want to bet on the safe just to finish, but I didn’t press 110% and it still didn’t work”, added she.
“I have no explanation and you don’t know how bad it is for me, because I always want to find an explanation. Now there is simply no such thing”, said also Mikaela Shiffrin. “There are competitions where I feel the tension, I’ve talked about it before. I felt it in the last Olympic year in South Korea. I’ve felt tension for most of my career, but not here. I think I just wanted to drive fast and clean, but I don’t know what lessons to learn, because in the next start for the World Cup everything will be different”, added she.
Asked if she still intends to compete in Saturday’s team event, she answered in a joking tone.
“Yes, but I think I’m more of a risk to my team. Maybe I should just drive downhill, at least I finish in it”, said Mikaela Shiffrin.
In China, she competed in all individual starts, but only finished in the super-giant slalom and downhill. Her two results from these two races were ninth in the Super-G and 18th in the downhill, respectively.
