American skiing star Mikaela Shifrin has squandered her last shot at individual Olympic gold at the 2022 Beijing Games. The athlete left the track already at the third start of the competition at this Olympics.
— It looks like a lot of work has sunk into oblivion. Now I doubt literally everything that I have learned over the past 15 years. In everything that I knew and could do, regarding my skating, slalom and my mood for racing. I drove with might and main, and perhaps it was too much, – Shifrin explained her failures at this Olympics.
Over the past four years, she has not finished in competitions only five times, three of them at this Olympics. Once again, Shifrin left the track in January this year at the World Cup in slalom, and before that, back in January 2020.
Gold in the combination went to the Swiss Michelle Giesen. The second place was taken by another representative of Switzerland, Wendy Goldener, and bronze by Italian Federica Brignone.
For Shifrin, this is a failure, because she is one of the most decorated skiers in history, the leader of the season in the overall standings, and also the only athlete who managed to win in one discipline at four world championships in a row.
Obviously, the American went to Beijing 2022 not just for a medal, but to conquer new records, but it didn’t work out. She retired from the track in three of her five starts and failed to finish.
Shifrin's best result at these Games was ninth in the super-G. In the downhill (downhill), she became 18th.
Mikaela Shifrin , 26, won gold in slalom at Sochi 2014, and gold in alpine skiing and silver in combined at Pyeongchang 2018. She holds the record among all North American skiers, because she is a six-time world champion. She is second only to Lindsey Vaughn in the number of wins among women in history.
Norway continues to lead the 2022 Olympic medal standings with 13 gold, seven silver and eight bronze medals. Second place in Germany, and the top three are closed by the United States. Ukraine ranks 23rd in the ranking thanks to Alexander Abramenko's silver in ski acrobatics.
