Winter Olympics 2022 - 'Amazing' - Mikaela Shiffrin praises course but laments 'really frustrating mistake' in GS

Defending giant slalom Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin crashed out during the first run on Monday, and she told Eurosport that while she was disappointed, she was proud of her performance. The 26-year-old was aiming to collect a third Olympic gold after successes in the slalom in Sochi in 2014 and the giant slalom at the PyeongChang 2018 Games. Ad/> However, Shiffrin – seventh out – crashed on the left-turn fifth gate.

She was the highest profile of a number of athletes who struggled with conditions at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Centre, with 22 of the 82 racers failing to complete the first run. Beijing 2022Defending champion Shiffrin crashes out of giant slalom, Hector leads after first run2 HOURS AGO «I felt I was pushing quite well and attacking, but there was just one turn I had a small mistiming of when I really went to push on my edges,” Shiffrin exclusively told Eurosport. “That makes all the difference.” She added on social media that her DNF was due to „really awful timing of a really frustrating mistake“, saying that she would turn her attentions to cheering on her team-mates in the second run of the GS and the men's downhill.

Sara Hector of Sweden stopped the clock at 57.56s to lead from Katharina Truppe (Austria) and Federica Brignone (Italy) ahead of the second run. Shiffrin was one of a number of racers who struggled with their footing, with another pre-race favourite – Petra Vlhova (Slovakia) – languishing in 13th almost two seconds off the pace ahead of the second run. The venue is heavily reliant on artificial snow and Brignone called it “weird” after she had completed her run.