Shiffrin Comes Up Short In Slalom

Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.), the defending slalom gold medalist from the 2014 Sochi Games, just missed the podium, finishing fourth, in Friday’s slalom at Yongpyong Alpine Centre.

“It’s not about the medals, it’s about how I feel on my skis,” Shiffrin said. “And today I didn’t feel like myself. Coming here today and skiing real conservative was a huge, huge disappointment.”

Shiffrin struggled to find her rhythm on her first run, finishing fourth almost a half-second off the pace set by Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener. She found her groove on the second run, only to make a costly mistake near the bottom of the course that cost her precious time.

“I know I have the best slalom turns in the world, but I didn’t put it out in the two runs where it mattered,” Shiffrin added. “Sometimes I feel like in slalom that the only one who can beat me in slalom is me. And I beat myself in the wrong way today.”

Sweden’s Frida Hansdotter took the gold, her first Olympic medal, as Holdener held on for the silver. Austria's Katharina Gallhuber, who went from ninth after the first run to post the fastest second run time, took the bronze.

Megan McJames (Park City, Utah.) was 36th, and Alice Merryweather, competing in her first Olympics, was 42nd.

“It was so exciting to get to start this race,” Merryweather said. “I have not skied a lot of slalom recently, but since I found out that I was going to be here, I trained four days of slalom and it’s been going pretty well. But I don’t think my (first) run today really showed all the training that I have been doing, but it was so fun and I was really determined to make it to the finish line, and I did that. So I’ll take what I can get.”

Resi Stiegler (Jackson Hole, Wyo.) straddled a gate and crashed in the first run.

Up next is the women’s super-G on Saturday, 11:00 a.m. KT / 9:00 p.m. EST Friday.

“I won’t be skiing super-G tomorrow,” Shiffrin said. “I’ll cheer on my teammates, then ski the downhill training runs and see how I feel.”

RESULTS
Women’s slalom