U.S. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin finishes one other Olympic race and not using a medal : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2747x1831+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbb%2F0f%2F5766a15148f8a5f2640ac07f0671%2Fap26046341940943.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/2747x1831+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fbb%2F0f%2F5766a15148f8a5f2640ac07f0671%2Fap26046341940943.jpg" class="img" alt="United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course, during an alpine ski, women's giant slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026." fetchpriority="high"/> United States' Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course, throughout an alpine ski, girls's big slalom race, on the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. Marco Trovati/AP disguise caption

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Marco Trovati/AP CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — U.S. Alpine snowboarding legend Mikaela Shiffrin is working out of possibilities to medal within the 2026 Winter Video games, after falling quick once more in big slalom beneath gorgeous blue skies within the mountains above Cortina.

Shiffrin has received extra World Cup races than every other skier in historical past and she or he has been the general chief on this winter's World Cup standings forward of competitors right here.

However the Olympics have lengthy stymied Shiffrin, since her gorgeous disappointment in 2022, when she left the Beijing Video games empty-handed regardless of coming into all six Alpine occasions.

The large slalom, specifically, has been a problem for Shiffrin. She received gold within the occasion within the 2018 Winter Video games in South Korea. However she has struggled since a crash in 2024 throughout an enormous slalom race in Killington, Vt., wherein she collided with a course gate and suffered a freak puncture wound to her stomach.

She returned to the World Cup circuit later that winter however for months struggled with PTSD within the big slalom occasion, she later mentioned. It was solely final month that Shiffrin lastly reached a World Cup podium within the occasion for the primary time because the harm, ending third at Spindleruv Mlyn in Czechia. She was not anticipated to win Sunday's race.

After arriving in Italy for the Olympics, Shiffrin acknowledged nonetheless missing the "drive" that prime big slalom racers deliver to the race. "There are turns the place I nonetheless again off that I see the highest girls who've been constantly profitable races -- they drive more durable. They push more durable," she mentioned on Feb. 7.

Nonetheless, Sunday marked the eighth straight Olympic occasion the place she failed to succeed in the rostrum. Shiffrin was in sixth place after her second and ultimate run of the day.

Talking final week, after a lackluster efficiency that dropped the U.S. girls out of medal rivalry within the crew Alpine mixed occasion, Shiffrin instructed reporters she was nonetheless making changes in Cortina.

"I did not fairly discover a consolation degree that permits me to supply full velocity," Shiffrin mentioned. "So I'll need to be taught what to do, what to regulate within the quick time now we have earlier than the opposite [technical discipline] races."