DAY #5 SPORTS FOCUS: Shiffrin addresses difficulties as Slovakia celebrates first Olympic alpine skiing medal

ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports summed up the “human drama of sporting competition” as the “thrill of victory and agony of defeat.”

The classic American sports anthology TV series’ catchphrase, from decades ago, seems appropriate in assessing what transpired in Wednesday’s dramatic Olympic women’s slalom.

Three-time Olympic medalist and three-time overall World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin suffered an uncharacteristic mistake for the second time in as many races, somehow quickly losing her rhythm, skiing off course just five gates and mere seconds into her first slalom run. The ‘DNF’, as it’s referred, abruptly ended her day. She sat beside the course in despair as the race resumed.

It was just the fourth time over the past decade, in 82 slalom races, that Shiffrin has missed or straddled a slalom gate, resulting in a DNF.

“I feel really a lot of disappointment, my performance is a huge letdown so far, but there’s so much to be proud of with my teammates and that’s awesome,” Shiffrin said.

“I have really incredible teammates here, one got a silver medal yesterday, my boyfriend is here, he got a bronze medal that he been working very hard for and he’s had some bad luck and I have three medals back home in my closet,” she said, focusing on the positive aspects of the past few days.

In what has an unexpected and trying journey in Beijing thus far, she is referring to teammate Ryan Cochran-Siegle, who gave the Americans an inspirational lift with his super-G silver medal performance on Tuesday, a race in which Shiffrin’s Norwegian boyfriend Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, claimed the first Olympic medal of his already storied career.

The greatly admired Colorado ski racer, who has succeeded in two Olympic Games, collecting three medals, in addition to having won four consecutive world championship slalom titles and more World Cup slalom victories than any racer in history (47), said the problem wasn’t the magnitude of performing on the big stage, something she is well-accustomed to.

Shiffrin won Olympic slalom gold as an 18-year-old at the Sochi 2014 Games.

“When the pressure is high - and of course the pressure is high but that didn’t feel like the biggest issue today - and there are some nerves and the feeling that I want to do well, I always just go back to that fundamental idea that good skiing will be there for me,” Shiffrin said.

“It’s not the end of the world and it’s so stupid to care this much, but I feel I have to question a lot now.

“Honestly, I am at a loss, it’s hard to really know what went wrong aside from I slipped up a bit on one turn and didn’t have enough space to recover from it.”

It has been nearly two years since she lost her father, Jeff, in an unexpected death. These are the first Olympic Games that he is not here with her. Her mother Eileen is both her coach and confidante.

“It does give me perspective but right now, I would really like to call him,” she said. “So, that doesn’t make it easier. He would probably tell me to get over it.”

In the lead-up to her third Olympics, the Colorado skier vowed to give her best effort to race in all five individual events at these Bejing 2022 Games. Still to potentially come for her are the super-G on Friday, followed by the downhill and Alpine combined. The U.S. Ski Team also announced that Shiffrin is on the mixed team event roster, if she is ready to go.

“Yeah, I mean no. I will try to re-set again,” Shiffrin said, asked about the still to come races. “Maybe try to re-set better this time but I also don’t know how to do better because I just don’t. I have never been in this position before and I don’t know how to handle it.

“As disappointed as I feel and as much as I am feeling right now, there is so much to be optimistic about right now,” Shiffrin said. “It’s just that there feels like there is a lot to be disappointed about right now.”

Shiffrin’s exact next steps and competition status in China remains to be seen.

It is important to note that Shiffrin is an excellent downhill and super-G skier, having won world championship bronze at Cortina 2021 world championships and has two career World Cup downhill victories, even if she doesn’t ski the speed events on a regular basis.

It is certainly a treat, when she chooses, to see her race “speed” events. Hopefully, she will be able to pick herself up and get back on the horse. She certainly has the unwavering support to do so.

Celebration for Slovakia

Slovak Petra Vlhova blazed an amazing second run of slalom, and rode some luck at her side, as she catapulted from eight place, after a subpar first run, to an Olympic slalom victory. It was her first-ever Olympic medal and also first for Slovakia. Vlhova won the race by 0.08 seconds ahead of Austrian Katerina Liensberger, who also leap-frogged five places, while Swiss Wendy Holdener raced to bronze.

Vlhova, who trailed Germany’s Lena Duerr by a whopping 0.72 seconds after the morning run, first witnessed Swede Sara Hector DNF approaching the finish line and then the German also make costly mistakes on the lower section of the piste. Olympic gold belonged to Vlhova.

She seemed in absolute and utter disbelief at the turn of events.

“After the first run I was a bit down, angry and sad,” the 26-year-old Vlhova said. “I started to not believe in myself. But I’m lucky because I have (the) best team ever and (the) best coach.”

Typically introverted, the 26-year-old Vlhova celebrated wildly with her new Italian coach Mauro Pino and others after German Lena Duerr threw time away at the bottom of the course and dropped to fourth place overall.

“Now I think everybody is celebrating in Slovakia,” she said. “For us (it) means a lot, because it’s something huge.”

The euphoria and celebration back in Slovakia is surely off the charts. Break out the Slivovitz!

Redemption for American snowboarder; Norwegian skier soars through the Beijing air to win ‘Big Air’ gold

U.S. snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, 36, made amends from a costly and questionable mistake from all the way back Torino 2006 that cost her a gold medal, and provoked criticism, in the debut of women’s slopestyle. Now, 16-years later, the veteran American rider struck gold in the same event. It was sweet redemption.

“I never thought of it that way - that was not in my mind,” said Jacobellis, now competing at her fifth Olympics. “I wanted to just come here and compete. It would have been a nice, sweet thing, but I think if I had tried to spend (time on) the thought of redemption, then it’s taking away focus on the task at hand, and that’s not why I race.”

“I’m over the moon excited that this finally came together for me. I woke up feeling it could happen today, and it might not, and that’s ok, I was just taking it one heat at a time,” she said.

In the debut of men’s Olympic freeski big air, it was emotional gold medal for Birk Ruud, the Norwegian 2016 Youth Olympic Games champion, who skipped last year’s World Championships big air final to spend time with his father who has cancer.

American Colby Stevenson soared to silver, while veteran Swede Henrik Harlaut went big for bronze.

Follow Brian on Twitter - @brian_pinelli

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