Mikaela Shiffrin misses a medal thanks to finishing fourth in slalom
Mikaela Shiffrin
Mikaela Shiffrin makes it all looks so easy sometimes. For the world’s most dominant female ski racer  the trip from the starting gate to the medals podium is a well-trodden path.
Two difficult runs on Friday offered a harsh reminder for  Shiffrin  and the world just how difficult this medal pursuit could be  how difficult it will be to leave PyeongChang with a suitcase full of gold. Less than 24 hours after winning the giant slalom   Shiffrin  was back on the course at Yongpyong Alpine Centre to defend  her  Olympic gold in the slalom.
But at the Winter Games  things don’t always go as planned  and in  her  most dominant and consistent discipline   Shiffrin  finished in a disappointing fourth place  endangering  her  hopes of leaving here with multiple medals.  Shiffrin ’s total time of 1:39.03 was 0.40 seconds behind first-place finisher Frida Hansdotter of Sweden and just 0.08 seconds away from a spot on the podium.
[Mikaela Shiffrin’s fourth-place finish is surprising — but not disappointing] 
Mikaela Shiffrin  was in fourth after  her  first run in the women’s slalom. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
 Shiffrin  seemed to know from the start of the day that something was amiss. Before  her  first run   Shiffrin  stood at the top of the course and vomited before launching down the hill.
“I just had this terrible feeling ”  she  explained later. “It was almost like a food poisoning feeling  like what is happening? I felt like my warm-up skiing was good  my turns and my free skiing was good. But when it came to putting it into the race  I was not like myself at all.”
 Shiffrin  has been open about  her  competitive anxieties and  her  ongoing battle with nerves. Last season  she  frequently became ill before races and sought the help of Lauren Loberg  a sports psychologist who works with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
On Friday in PyeongChang  in  her  best discipline and with an empty stomach   she  wasn’t  her  usual dominant self and clocked a time of 49.37 seconds  the fourth-best of the day’s initial runs. Entering the second run   she  trailed Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener by 0.48 seconds  not an insurmountable margin by any means.
“Rather than just focusing on the good skiing I know I can do  I was conservative ”  Shiffrin  said. “I was almost trying to do something special. I don’t need to do something special. I just need to ski like  myself  and it’ll be fine.”
Of the 2 900 athletes competing in the Winter Games  few are as dominant in their chosen discipline as  Shiffrin  has been in the slalom. In addition to the Sochi title   Shiffrin  has won the past three world titles  dating to 2013 when  she  was all of 17 years old.  She ’s now 22 and already has won 30 World Cup slalom events; only two female skiers all time — Austria’s Marlies Schild (35) and Switzerland’s Vreni Schneider (34) — have more. And  Shiffrin  has won the World Cup slalom title five of the past six years. (In 2016   she  missed two months of competition because of a knee injury but still won all five slalom races  she  entered.)
 She  had about four hours before  her  second run  enough time to nap  regroup and calm  her  nerves. Coming from behind is not a familiar position for Shiffrin  in large part because it’s such unfamiliar territory. This season  she  has competed in seven World Cup slalom races.  She  led after the first run in six  eventually winning five and finishing second in another. The only slalom  she  didn’t lead this season was Jan. 9 in Flachau  Austria  where  she  was second  trailing only one racer — Austria’s Bernadette Schild — by 0.37 seconds. She scorched through her second run and won the race over Schild by nearly a full second.
U.S. alpine ski racer Mikaela Shiffrin is about to embark on the races of her life at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics  in a quest for multiple gold medals. She won gold in 2014 in women’s slalom. (Alice Li Lee Powell/The Washington Post)
 Shiffrin  came to PyeongChang contemplating as many as five races. But weather wiped out two days of competition  forcing Olympic officials to shuffle and condense the Alpine schedule. For  Shiffrin    it  meant races wouldn’t be spaced out as much and  she  wouldn’t have as much time to rest and prepare for the speed events.
[Mikaela Shiffrin captures gold in women’s giant slalom]
 Her  team decided to pull out of Saturday’s super-G race and haven’t yet made a final decision on next week’s downhill  though the combined is still likely. Having to open these Olympics racing the giant slalom and slalom on back-to-back days was exhausting in every way  Shiffrin said.
Mikaela Shiffrin makes it all looks so easy sometimes. For the world’s most dominant female ski racer  the trip from the starting gate to the medals podium is a well-trodden path.
Two difficult runs on Friday offered a harsh reminder for  Shiffrin  and the world just how difficult this medal pursuit could be  how difficult it will be to leave PyeongChang with a suitcase full of gold. Less than 24 hours after winning the giant slalom   Shiffrin  was back on the course at Yongpyong Alpine Centre to defend  her  Olympic gold in the slalom.
But at the Winter Games  things don’t always go as planned  and in  her  most dominant and consistent discipline   Shiffrin  finished in a disappointing fourth place  endangering  her  hopes of leaving here with multiple medals.  Shiffrin ’s total time of 1:39.03 was 0.40 seconds behind first-place finisher Frida Hansdotter of Sweden and just 0.08 seconds away from a spot on the podium.
[Mikaela Shiffrin’s fourth-place finish is surprising — but not disappointing] 
[TGT]was in fourth after  [TGT]  first run in the women’s slalom. (Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images)
 Shiffrin  seemed to know from the start of the day that something was amiss. Before  her  first run   Shiffrin  stood at the top of the course and vomited before launching down the hill.
“I just had this terrible feeling ”  she  explained later. “It was almost like a food poisoning feeling  like what is happening? I felt like my warm-up skiing was good  my turns and my free skiing was good. But when it came to putting it into the race  I was not like myself at all.”
 Shiffrin  has been open about  her  competitive anxieties and  her  ongoing battle with nerves. Last season  she  frequently became ill before races and sought the help of Lauren Loberg  a sports psychologist who works with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association.
On Friday in PyeongChang  in  her  best discipline and with an empty stomach   she  wasn’t  her  usual dominant self and clocked a time of 49.37 seconds  the fourth-best of the day’s initial runs. Entering the second run   she  trailed Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener by 0.48 seconds  not an insurmountable margin by any means.
“Rather than just focusing on the good skiing I know I can do  I was conservative ”  Shiffrin  said. “I was almost trying to do something special. I don’t need to do something special. I just need to ski like  myself  and it’ll be fine.”
Of the 2 900 athletes competing in the Winter Games  few are as dominant in their chosen discipline as  Shiffrin  has been in the slalom. In addition to the Sochi title   Shiffrin  has won the past three world titles  dating to 2013 when  she  was all of 17 years old.  She ’s now 22 and already has won 30 World Cup slalom events; only two female skiers all time — Austria’s Marlies Schild (35) and Switzerland’s Vreni Schneider (34) — have more. And  Shiffrin  has won the World Cup slalom title five of the past six years. (In 2016   she  missed two months of competition because of a knee injury but still won all five slalom races  she  entered.)
 She  had about four hours before  her  second run  enough time to nap  regroup and calm  her  nerves. Coming from behind is not a familiar position for Shiffrin  in large part because it’s such unfamiliar territory. This season  she  has competed in seven World Cup slalom races.  She  led after the first run in six  eventually winning five and finishing second in another. The only slalom  she  didn’t lead this season was Jan. 9 in Flachau  Austria  where  she  was second  trailing only one racer — Austria’s Bernadette Schild — by 0.37 seconds. She scorched through her second run and won the race over Schild by nearly a full second.
U.S. alpine ski racer [TGT] is about to embark on the races of [TGT] life at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics  in a quest for multiple gold medals. [TGT] won gold in 2014 in women’s slalom. (Alice Li Lee Powell/The Washington Post)
 Shiffrin  came to PyeongChang contemplating as many as five races. But weather wiped out two days of competition  forcing Olympic officials to shuffle and condense the Alpine schedule. For  Shiffrin    it  meant races wouldn’t be spaced out as much and  she  wouldn’t have as much time to rest and prepare for the speed events.
[Mikaela Shiffrin captures gold in women’s giant slalom]
 Her  team decided to pull out of Saturday’s super-G race and haven’t yet made a final decision on next week’s downhill  though the combined is still likely. Having to open these Olympics racing the giant slalom and slalom on back-to-back days was exhausting in every way  Shiffrin said.