Shiffrin hits back at critics on social media after another disappointment in Beijing

Mikaela Shiffrin has an Olympics unlike any other in her career, and not in a good way. The American has three Olympic medals to her name, two of them gold, but her performance in Beijing has been a nightmare.

She has competed in five individual races and didn’t finish three of them. After crashing out in the slalom portion of the women’s combined Shiffrin, who earlier in the Games said she wasn’t talking to the media for at least the remainder of the Olympics, spoke to reporters about her latest DNF (did not finish) and then posted a lengthy and defiant statement on her Twitter page.

“Well kids…Feed ‘em what you wanna feed em. Self pity, sadness…Let the turkeys get you down. There will always be turkeys. Or get up, again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again,” she posted.

“Get up because you can, because you like what you do when it’s not infested with the people who have so much apparent hate for you. Just get up. It’s not always easy, but it’s also not the end of the world to fail. Fail twice. Fail 5 times. At the Olympics (Enter me…)

“Why do I keep coming back? Gosh knows it hurts more than it feels good lately. I come back because those first 9 turns today were spectacular, really heaven. That’s where I’m meant to be and I’m stubborn as s---. So let’s go for some team event training tomorrow and the final alpine race of the Olympics on Saturday.”

Shiffrin is entered in the mixed team parallel slalom competition, her sixth and final event of the Beijing Games. She will be just the second woman to compete in all six Alpine Olympic events.

Should Shiffrin win a medal in the mixed team event, she will tie Julia Mancuso for the most by an American woman in Alpine skiing with four total. If she wins a gold, Shiffrin would have the most of any American skier all-time.