American alpine skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin entered the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 as the podium favorite. However, the defending champion in two events, Shiffrin has been having a tough run at the mega games this year.
Earlier she had a shocking crash in the first event, losing out on her Grand Slalom title. As she optimistically started her second event, things took another turn for the worst for her.
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Mikaela Shiffrin questions herself post-second setback
Back in the 2018 Olympics, Mikaela won three Olympic medals, dominating the alpine skiing sport. However, the Beijing Olympics have been tough on the defending champion. Today, Shiffrin competed in her second event, i.e. slalom, in which she had won the Olympic gold medal in 2018. As she started her run, things went south for her and she faced a shocking fall, which led to another exit.
Heartbroken by her performance, Mikaela sat alone in the snow, trying to process what went down. Later, she also bravely tried to answer the questions fired at her. The Winter Olympics star was absolutely shattered as she questioned her career learnings.
She said with tears in her eyes and a broken voice, “I had every intention to go full gas….this makes me second-guess, like, the last 15 years, everything I thought I knew about my own skiing, in slalom, and my own racing mentality.”
“Makes me second guess the last 15 years…”
A very emotionally raw moment with Mikaela Shiffrin after her early exit @NBCOlympics #NBC10Boston pic.twitter.com/1cF4iCLfT5— Ryan Kath (@RyanNBCBoston) February 9, 2022
The world felt the pain as Shiffrin fell down; albeit it’s not over for her yet.
Shifrin to appear in more events
Mikaela still has a few chances left to reach the Olympic podium. She will appear in the Women’s Super-G event next on 10 February; followed by women’s downhill and women’s combined downhill on 14th and 16th February, respectively.
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While she is undoubtedly one of the best in the sport, she will look to regain her footing. Shiffrin has been through a lot in the past two years and has faced back-to-back setbacks in Beijing this week.
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Regardless of how things turn out in the upcoming matches, she is the champion even without winning the medal, but for just showing up despite the personal misfortunes in her life.