PYEONGCHANG — Mikaela Shiffrin took home shiny gold, sparkling silver and a big old slice of humble pie from the Winter Games.
At an Olympics where almost nothing went according to Shiffrin’s plan, from the wind that wreaked havoc with her ambitious goal of skiing all five disciplines on the mountain to the banishment of boyfriend Mathieu Faivre from the French ski team for unsportsmanlike conduct, two medals is an awesome haul.
But maybe the most impressive thing Shiffrin did was lose with grace. She failed to reach the finish first, second or third in the slalom, a race she wins an incredible 75 percent of the time against the best skiers in the world.
And with another storm building on the horizon Thursday, as the afternoon light grew flatter as each skier crossed the finish line in the combined, when Michelle Gisin of Switzerland knocked Shiffrin down a step on the podium to silver, the 22-year-old star from EagleVail turned to the television camera that was desperately looking for any sign of disappointment on her face, and instead gave the viewers back home in America a shrug of the shoulders. Her body language said it all.
Hey, what can you do?
“Coming here, I knew that I could be a threat for a medal in at least three disciplines. That was a really, really cool position to be in,” Shiffrin said. “But also, on the plane ride over here from Europe, I was thinking: ‘Yeah, but I could also come away with nothing. Let’s just focus on the details, focus on my skiing.’”
After Shiffrin won the giant slalom in her first race the brutal cold and wind allowed, she admittedly lost focus. If you ask me, she worried too much about satisfying every media commitment and then showed up at the medals plaza for an evening ceremony, instead of turning in early for bed to prepare for her second shot at gold within 24 hours.
“To win a gold medal in the GS was one of the most emotional feelings I ever had,” said Shiffrin, who collapsed on the snow, overwhelmed with joy, when her winning time flashed on the scoreboard. “It was too difficult to re-focus on the slalom and re-charge my batteries.”
Here’s hoping what Shiffrin learned is champions sometimes need to be a pain in the rear to kick rear.
Four years ago, as a teenager that won the slalom in Sochi, Shiffrin dreamed of winning five gold medals in 2018. I was there when she said it. And thought: Oh, boy. Here we go. The hype machine pumped her up as the Michael Phelps of winter.
There’s only one Phelps. At age 22, Shiffrin is older and wiser. Queue up “Humble” by Kendrick Lamar.
Humble? She’s also hungry. Shiffrin has won 41 races on the World Cup.
U.S. teammate Lindsey Vonn, who straddled a gate in the slalom and did not finish the combined after leading the field with her downhill run, has declared she has pushed the next generation of skiers to go faster and charge harder.
Vonn owns 81 World Cup victories.
The Winter Games are a 17-day sprint.
Shiffrin can now focus on the marathon ahead. Vonn is the holder of a much bigger title than Olympic champion. She is the greatest female skier that ever lived.
Now there’s a new impossible dream for Shiffrin to chase.
