BEIJING, China — For the second time at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, U.S. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin was disqualified from an event.
The 26-year-old from Edwards, Colorado almost immediately skied out just about five seconds after beginning her first run in the women's slalom.
She appeared to yell out the moment she missed the gate in the slalom, which she won at the 2014 Sochi Games. She skied over the the edge of the course and sat down, bowing her head. She stayed there for several minutes.
> Watch Shiffrin's slalom disqualification below:
"I think I just slipped," an emotional Shiffrin said after the disqualification. "I mean, I had every intention to go full gas, and there wasn't really any space in the course to, I don't know, to slip, not even a little bit. I didn't even give myself space for that"
"In my experience that mentality has brought my best skiing, and today I went out on the fifth gate," Shiffrin said.
"Pretty much everything makes me second-guess the last 15 years," she added. "Everything I thought I knew about my own skiing, and slalom and racing mentality. Just processing a lot for sure."
The two-time gold medalist is seeking to become the first American Alpine skier to win three gold medals across an Olympic career.
There are up to three more Olympic events Shiffrin could earn a medal; super-G, downhill and combined.
Shiffrin has said she hoped to enter all five individual events at Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center.
Shiffrin's first trip down the race hill at the Beijing Games lasted just five turns and mere seconds Monday, ending in a disqualification from the opening leg of the giant slalom that she called “a huge disappointment.”
The alpine skier said on Instagram after disqualifying that "today was one of the most turbulent days I have ever experienced."
“The day was finished, basically, before it even started," she said. “I’m not going to cry about this, because that’s just wasting energy.”
It is not stunning that she hasn’t won a medal, let alone a gold. As Shiffrin herself so often reminds everyone, anything can happen on any given day. What is truly surprising is that she has been so off her game so immediately in each of her two trips along the course known as the Ice River.
She already owns three Olympic medals, including golds in slalom in 2014 and in giant slalom in 2018.
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