Despite her crash in the giant slalom on Monday, Mikaela Shiffrin will still have her eye on a piece of American Winter Olympics history when she takes to the slopes again on Wednesday
With the 26-year-old set to compete in all five individual skiing events, Shiffrin will be hoping to become the first US skier to win three medals at a single Games. Though she is widely considered the most dominant skier of her generation — and will go down as one of the greatest ever when she eventually retires — even securing one medal is by no means a certainty, given the quality of her opposition. Shiffrin will be among the gold medal contenders in the combined — an event she won silver in four years ago in PyeongChang and also won at last year’s World Championships — although Monday’s DNF in the giant slalom is proof that nothing is a given in alpine skiing. The Colorado native also created an interesting pre-Olympic wrinkle in the lead up to Beijing, beating heavy favorite Petra Vlhova in the slalom in Schladming, Austria. It was a record-breaking 47th World Cup slalom win for Shiffrin, who became the skier with the most victories in a single World Cup discipline, breaking Swedish legend Ingemar Stenmark’s previous record of 46 giant slalom wins. The win was certainly something of a shock, as Vlhova had dominated the slalom this season with five wins and two runner-up finishes. The rescheduling of three of the five events in PyeongChang due to high winds forced Shiffrin to pull out of super-G and downhill and the compacted schedule impacted her preparation for the slalom, leading her to fall agonizingly short of a medal in fourth place. However, external factors permitting in Beijing, Shiffrin should have a legitimate shot at claiming a trio of medals. Overcoming grief The upcoming Games will be particularly emotional for Shiffrin as she competes at the Olympics for the first time without her father, Jeff, who died suddenly from an accident in February 2020 while at home in Colorado.
