Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin is an American two-time Olympic Gold Medalist and World Cup alpine skier. She is a three-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom, and a six-time winner of the World Cup discipline title in that event.
Mikaela Shiffrin: Accent| Does have an accent| Super g 2022
Accent:
Shiffrin didn’t win a medal, but she completed the race and, perhaps most importantly, showed herself she could do it despite the challenges of the past week.
“I think today I proved to myself that I can still trust my instincts a bit,” Shiffrin said in a postrace interview on NBC. “And that’s really, really huge.”
Two days after slipping just five seconds into the first of her slalom race, and four days after skiing out 11 seconds into her opening run of the giant slalom, Shiffrin silenced her own doubts and made it down the mountain in the super-G in 1:14.30.
Did have an accent:
The 26-year-old American, who had arrived in Beijing as one of the faces of the Games and expected to win multiple medals, couldn’t hide her devastation after her early slalom exit. She sat alone on the side of the course for several minutes with her head in her hands. A three-time Olympic medalist with 73 wins on the World Cup circuit, Shiffrin was candid with reporters shortly after about her uncharacteristic performances in the first two races.
She said she was confused, and was questioning everything she knew about her skiing, and wasn’t sure how to proceed.
“I’ll try to reset again, and maybe try to reset better this time,” she said. “But I also don’t know how to do it better because I’ve never been in this position before and I don’t know how to handle it.”
Super g 2022:
Shiffrin is off to a rough start so far at the 2022 Olympics. The 26-year-old American went off-course about 10 seconds into the giant slalom on Monday and after about half as much time in the slalom on Wednesday.
“I’ve had a lot of support over the last 48 hours,” Shiffrin wrote Friday, “and I have to thank everyone for that.”
She won the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and the giant slalom at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
