Winter Olympics 2018: Shiffrin describes slalom woe as a ‘really big bummer’

The multiple world champion came in 0.48sec behind Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener’s leading time of 48.89sec down the Rainbow 1 course in bitterly cold, bright conditions.

Shiffrin’s mother, Eileen, who also coaches Mikaela, already had said Saturday’s super-G was no longer part of the plan. Instead, she blamed a case of nerves and tentative skiing in her signature event, when she is usually very aggressive. “It nearly felt like a virus”, Shiffrin said, laughing. “I was thinking that after the first run, but I think it was me making an excuse”.

“For me it’s incredible”, Shiffrin told NBC after her final run. Coming here today and skiing really conservative was a huge disappointment. “That’s how life goes”.

“Right now, I’m dreaming of the next Olympics (and) winning five gold medals, which sounds really insane”, Shiffrin told the Boston Globe.

There were seven racers within a second of Holdener’s first-run time, with Hansdotter 0.20 seconds back.

Dark-horse Gallhuber, just 20 and only ninth-fastest first time out, laid down a stunning second run to put herself in pole.

Tessa Worley, the French world champion expected to challenge Shiffrin, recovered from a disastrous first run to clock 1:09.00, but it only lifted her to seventh.

Shiffrin’s busy schedule is for a shot at history – no skier, man or woman, has ever won more than three gold medals at one Olympics, or four golds over the course of their Olympic career.

Hansdotter, a 32-year-old veteran of the World Cup circuit, will become the second Swedish woman to win Olympic slalom following Anja Paerson in Turin in 2006. But on the second run, Shiffrin was clearly on a mission.

Shiffrin said after her run that she was “gonna go take a nap”, and wasn’t overly concerned with the deficit. “I am speechless and I can’t believe it”, she said.

“I skied well, I was loose”.

In women’s cross-country skiing, Ragnhild Haga took home the gold in the 10,000-kilometer race, with Charlotte Kalla of Sweden taking the silver medal. A lot of races I have done it this year. “It nearly felt like a virus kind of puking, less about nerves”.

The two-time Olympian finished fifth in the event during the 2014 Sochi Games, but she’s said before, “I sure as heck am not getting fifth” at the next Olympics, and she stayed true to her word. Now 22, the American made good on that goal during her much-anticipated debut race, skiing with power and objective, and won gold!