American skier Mikaela Shiffrin announced Monday she would not compete in the women’s alpine skiing downhill, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday. Shiffrin had originally qualified to compete for five gold medals at the 2018 Winter Olympics, but high winds repeatedly forced officials to reschedule events.
Mikaela Shiffrin withdraws from ladies’ alpine skiing downhill
This is the second event she has had to pull out of after high winds forced a compacted event schedule
Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports
With the schedule too tightly packed at the back end of the Olympics, Shiffrin decided she would rather concentrate on the Alpine combined, which begins Thursday.
Via the U.S. Ski Team, Shiffrin said:
“As much as I wanted to compete in the Olympic downhill, with the schedule change it’s important for me to focus my energy on preparing for the combined,” said Shiffrin. “I’m looking forward to cheering on our girls racing in the downhill and to compete myself in Thursday’s combined.
“This track is incredible and it has been so fun to ski these last few days. As with every downhill I have skied this year I am learning so much with each run. Each time I get to the finish I just want to go back to the top and do it again!”
The alpine combined will be held 9:30 p.m. ET Wednesday. The alpine combined mashes together both downhill and slalom runs to find out who is the best all-around skiier.
Shiffrin already has one gold at the Pyeongchang games. She topped the giant slalom Feb. 13. Two days later in the slalom, however, she finished just outside the medal standings in fourth place.
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