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.
Prior to her giant-slalom setback, she 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.”
