Mikaela Shiffrin crashed out of her second successive alpine race at Beijing 2022 in another disastrous run for the American.
The double Olympic champion had been billed as one of the potential stars of these Winter Olympics.
She failed to finish the course in the defence of her giant slalom title and her slalom run was even briefer, managing just four gates before sliding off the course and letting out a scream of frustration.
She had only failed to finish two races in the past four years and her last DNF in a technical race dates back to the end of 2011 but she now has two DNFs in two runs.
Shiffrin had been aiming to do all five alpine events but her best hopes had come in the giant slalom in which she won the Olympic gold in 2018 and the slalom event in which she first became Olympic champion as an 18-year-old back in Sochi four years earlier.
Following her second failure to finish, the 26-year-old said: “The last days of training have been really on point. My plan was always to go full gas but I gave myself no space to make an error.
“I wanted to feel really good and it did at the start gate but then that’s just the way racing goes I suppose.
“I don’t know, it didn’t work out today and in the giant slalom. I don’t know what has to change, I’ve never experienced this before. It’s hard to accept. I need time to reevaluate. I need to refocus now. I feel pretty awful but I won’t feel awful forever. I just feel pretty low right now.”
World Cup slalom champion Petra Vlahova produced a stunning second run in the event to win gold for Slovakia, with Austrian Katharina Liesnberger taking the silver and Wendy Holdener, of Germany, the bronze.
Of the British contingent, Alex Tilley, like Shiffrin, failed to finish her first run while Charlie Guest finished just outside the top 20.
In the men’s freeski Big Air, 21-year-old Norwegian Birk Ruud comfortably won gold courtesy of his opening two runs, the first of which had scored a massive 95.5 points. The gold went to American Colby Stevenson with Sweden’s Henrik Harlaut rounding off the podium.
Defending Olympic champion Chloe Kim, of the United States, was the pick of the qualifiers in the women’s halfpipe while countryman Shaun White, competing at his last Games at the age of 35, recovered from a poor first run to qualify fourth in the men’s event.
Skating wait
The winners in the team figure skating competition at the Beijing Olympics still have not received their medals two days later because of what the IOC says are "legal issues."
The ceremony to award gold to Russia, silver to the United States silver and bronze to Japan was not held as scheduled on Tuesday. Reporters asked the Kremlin amid speculation that gold medals won by six Russian skaters could be at risk - the IOC has not provided more information about the legal issues.
“Let's, for the sake of understanding, wait for some explanations either from our sports officials or from the IOC," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
If any athlete and team were disqualified or had their results nullified, an appeal would likely follow, which could further delay the medals presentation. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has set up an office in Beijing to hear urgent cases during the Winter Games. Canada placed fourth Monday and would be in line to be upgraded to the podium if another team were disqualified.
Winter Olympics medal table
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
|
1 |
Germany |
5 |
3 |
0 |
8 |
2 |
Norway |
4 |
2 |
4 |
10 |
3 |
Sweden |
4 |
1 |
2 |
7 |
4 |
Netherlands |
3 |
3 |
1 |
7 |
5 |
China |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
6 |
Austria |
2 |
4 |
4 |
10 |
7 |
Italy |
2 |
4 |
1 |
7 |
8 |
ROC |
2 |
3 |
6 |
11 |
9 |
Slovenia |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
10 |
USA |
1 |
5 |
1 |
7 |
- |
Great Britain |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
