Defending Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin out of giant slalom on first run

Mikaela Shiffrin’s bid for a record medal haul at the Winter Olympics got off to a rocky start on Monday morning when the American star missed a gate early in the first run of the giant slalom and was disqualified.

The 26-year-old overall World Cup leader was unable to hold the edge of her right ski early on the course known as the Ice River and fell on her hip, ending her Olympic title defense only seconds into her Beijing debut.

“I won’t hide the disappointment but I’m not going to dwell on it because that won’t help me,” Shiffrin said afterward. “I was attacking, a small mistiming when I set my edges and I slipped out.”

It marked only the third time in four years that Shiffrin has failed to finish a race and the 14th in a total of 229 starts across all disciplines at World Cup, Olympic and world championship events. Her most recent DNF in a giant slalom came during the first run of a January 2018 race at Kronplatz, Italy, two weeks before the Pyeongchang Games.

The Colorado native was one of five non-finishers who struggled on the icy surface of the unfamiliar piste at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre, where the usual test events that allow skiers to get used to the mountain were canceled due to Covid. Italy’s Marta Bassino, who won the World Cup giant slalom title last season and drew the No 5 bib on Monday, also fell early in her run.

“I’m going to reset, focus on what I can control for the slalom,” she said. “There’s still a long two weeks to go and I’m still looking forward to it. I’m sorry that that was the performance I did today.”

Shiffrin, whose three Olympic medals include gold in slalom in 2014 and in giant slalom in 2018, has said her plan is to race all five individual events in Beijing. Her next