BEIJING – Two races, 10 gates.
That’s the sum total of Mikaela Shiffrin’s performance so far at the Beijing Olympics, a Games where she was expected to contend for multiple medals. Two days after skiing out in the first run of the giant slalom, Shiffrin did the same in the first run of the slalom Wednesday.
Afterward, she sat in the snow for several minutes, crying and looking despondent. These were her two best events, races in which she has won gold medals, and she didn’t even get through the first run. It’s the first time she has failed to finish back-to-back technical races since December 2011, when she was 16 years old.