Every athlete has a competitive gene. Something that pushes them past every bit of preparation they would undertake and gets them to the podium. For most athletes, that’s the sort of absolute focus they build and it’s the same for Mikaela Shiffrin.
Unfortunately, despite her steely determination and resolve, she recently fell in one of her attempts.
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Shiffrin crashed only 11 seconds and 5 turns into her giant slalom run. Tremendously uncharacteristic of the athlete who has a dominant record of the slopes in the years past. With 29 finishes in the top 7 out of her past 30 participations, nobody can really doubt the skill Shiffrin possesses.
Shiffrin is now scheduled to race next on Wednesday in the slalom, another event?in which she has won Olympic gold. Tremendous legacy now rests on that event where Shiffrin will arrive with the entire preparation cycle behind her and on the line.
Her last major loss at Kronplatz is still not something, reportedly, that she has been able to get over.?Shiffrin said, “I still remember how much it hurt to lose it four years ago in Kronplatz. I fell before the last Olympics and I remember thinking that was so heartbreaking. It wasn’t even at the Olympics.”
Mikaela Shiffrin opens up about the fall
Interacting with the media after her event, Shiffrin added, ?I won’t ever get over this.? As an athlete, it could be hard to deal with losses at the Olympics because they could well mean that you lose out on Olympic recognition until the next cycle in another 4 years.
While Shiffrin may want to recalibrate mentally to ensure confidence into Wednesday’s event, it will still be tough for her. It would sting to lose in the way that she did; especially taking into account how much preparation would’ve gone into such a run. But at the same time, it would also be necessary to clear your head of the baggage.
Shiffrin, however, spoke about how hard that may be to do for her. She added, “I won’t ever get over this either. But I just have to put the pause button on really feeling the emotions or dwelling on it, because it just takes too much energy.”
Here’s to hoping that Shiffrin is able to turn it around and defend her Olympic medal on Wednesday and until then can get past this rare, but fateful drop.
