Shiffrin used Goggia’s skis for combined event in an effort to change her luck

It was more heartbreak in the women’s Alpine combined event for Mikaela Shiffrin as the American failed to finish the event. It was her third DNF (did not finish) of the Beijing Games.

She crashed out roughly 10 gates into the slalom portion of the event. She was sitting in fifth place after an impressive downhill run, thanks to an assist from fellow Olympic gold medalist Sofia Goggia.

The Italian won the silver medal in the downhill event, and let Shiffrin use her skis for the combined. Along with a little note of encouragement.

“She didn’t need them because she wasn’t competing here, so I was able to try them and ski on them today,” Shiffrin said. “She actually wrote a small message on them, when I saw it I almost started crying…It was like, ‘you can fly on these skis’, or something like that.”

The two champions share the same manufacturer sponsor.

Shiffrin actually did something similar at PyeongChang four years ago when she lent her skis to the Czech Republic’s Ester Ledecka for the super G event. Ledecka went on to win the gold medal.

While Shiffrin didn’t fare as well as Ledecka did, she was very appreciative of the kind gesture from Goggia.

“One thing you can be sure about is Sofia is winning, she has incredible skis, her serviceman is doing an amazing job, but she wins races also because of her skills. I’m thankful I was able to get a feeling on those, just try to fly as best as I could.”

Shiffrin has one last chance to redeem her Beijing Games with a medal when she’ll compete in the mixed team parallel slalom on Saturday. No word on whose skis she’ll be using.