Giant slalom gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin pulls out of super-G Olympic event
Race postponements forced Shiffrin to compete on a compressed schedule, and she'll have to sacrifice an event
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1 min read
Mikaela Shiffrin, who won Wednesday night's giant slalom, was hoping to leave Pyeongchang with five gold medals in five events, but she'll have to give up that dream through no fault of her own. After windy conditions in South Korea forced officials to postpone the women's slalom and giant slalom events several times, Schiffrin will have to compete on a compressed schedule. According to Schiffrin's mother, Eileen, that schedule has made it impossible for the 22-year-old skier to compete in all five events that she was was planning on appearing in, and so she'll skip Saturday's super-G -- which will take place on primetime Friday night for U.S. television audiences.
"She will have raced and trained – or tried to race – for six days in a row," Eileen Shiffrin said, via USA Today. "She has to have a day off."
The conditions in South Korea during these games have been uncooperative at times early in these Olympics. Snowboarders in the women's slopestyle event over the weekend had to battle high winds and it clearly affected their runs quite a bit, but no event has been as frustrated as the slalom.
Stars in the right hand, stripes in the left.. make sure it’s right side up.. careful with the wind.. don’t drop it!.. Okay okay, all set.. cool.. now SMILE!!” 😄😄 #teamusa #WinterOlympics 📷gettyimages pic.twitter.com/JA62ESv6rn
— Mikaela Shiffrin (@MikaelaShiffrin) February 15, 2018
The giant slalom was scheduled to be held on Sunday night for NBC's primetime broadcast, but the winds forced officials to postpone it until Wednesday. Schiffrin finally was able to make her debut in the event, and she took home gold.
Meanwhile, the slalom was originally slated to be held Tuesday in South Korea -- again, Monday night in the U.S. -- but the conditions pushed it back to Thursday in South Korea. Confused yet?
Those postponements have put Schiffrin in a tough spot. With the super-G scheduled for Saturday in South Korea, that would make three consecutive days of competition for the young skier. That's a grueling ask for a skier, especially one who is still hoping to compete in the downhill and combined events next week.
With Schriffin the reigning champ in the slalom and a favorite to repeat, she has elected to forgo the super-G and rest up instead.
It's disappointing that mother nature has robbed the American skier of an event, but Schriffin still has a great chance to have a historically great Olympic run in Pyeongchang. For a complete look at how to watch Mikaela Shiffrin at the Olympics, click here.
Medal Tracker
PyeongChang 2018
|
Country
|
|
|
|
TOTAL
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
14 | 14 | 11 | 39 |
|
14 | 10 | 7 | 31 |
|
11 | 8 | 10 | 29 |
|
9 | 8 | 6 | 23 |
|
8 | 6 | 6 | 20 |
|
7 | 6 | 1 | 14 |
|
5 | 8 | 4 | 17 |
|
5 | 6 | 4 | 15 |
|
5 | 4 | 6 | 15 |
|
5 | 3 | 6 | 14 |
|
4 | 5 | 4 | 13 |
|
3 | 2 | 5 | 10 |
|
2 | 6 | 9 | 17 |
|
2 | 2 | 3 | 7 |
|
2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
|
1 | 6 | 2 | 9 |
|
1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
|
1 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
|
1 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
|
1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
|
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
|
1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
|
0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
|
0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
|
0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
