Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin didn't offer any excuses. No sense of anger, frustration or tears for that matter, either.
The most decorated slalom racer in history could tell the snow under her skis didn't feel right to her as she made her way down the Tofane course in the first Olympic women's team combined event on Tuesday.
Something about the feedback she was getting seemed ... off.
By the time Shiffrin crossed the finish line, the slim lead Breezy Johnson handed her after a brilliant and gutsy downhill was gone. So was a shot at the gold, which went to the Austrian team of Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber.
Silver and bronze disappeared, too, with fellow Team USA members Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan holding off their two friends for third to earn the first Olympic medals of their lengthy careers.
Shiffrin's been doing this a long time. She knows these things happen. Yet for Shiffrin, they have typically come in training. The only time they seem to pop up in competition is at the Olympics.
Four years removed from a forgettable two weeks in Beijing when she went 0 for 6 and failed to even reach the finish line three times, Shiffrin's fourth Olympics began with a run that started slow and never came together. She lost time at every checkpoint, sending her and Johnson sliding down to fourth.
How sluggish was Shiffrin? Her time of 45.38 was 15th fastest out of the 18 skiers who reached the bottom. For comparison, Shiffrin hadn't finished that low in an individual slalom she finished since 2012, when she still was a teenager and her rise to three Olympic medals and a record 108 World Cup titles (and counting) was still beyond her wildest dreams.
"There's something to learn today," Shiffrin said. "I'm going to learn it."
It wasn't a confidence issue. Shiffrin took the chair lift up to the top of the course inspired by Johnson, who backed up a gold-medal performance in the women's downhill on Sunday by storming her way to the front to give Shiffrin a slim lead of .06 seconds heading into the slalom.
Shiffrin, who knows a thing or two about attention, marveled at Johnson's ability to focus given the whirlwind that comes when you break through at the Olympics. She leaned forward at the start intent on giving Johnson her second gold in 48 hours.
Down at the finish, Wiles and Moltzan sat in third torn between rooting for their teammates and dreading having a medal snatched away by the best to ever do it.
"We were asking for a miracle," Wiles said.
They got one. Shiffrin stood in the finish area after her time was posted and was immediately embraced by Johnson. Hugs with Moltzan and Wiles — well aware of the bullet they dodged — soon followed.
"I think if you let Mikaela go run that course (again), I think she'd come down at least a second (faster)," Moltzan said.
Only she didn't. Not this time anyway. Whatever personal disappointment Shiffrin might have felt was offset by watching two friends she's skied alongside for the better part of two decades have their Olympic moment years in the making.
Wiles, who cried while talking to the media after a fourth-place finish in the downhill, became the oldest woman to medal in an Alpine event at 33 years, 7 months.
"There's so much sweet about the day," Shiffrin said. "So we're taking that and I will have some learning to do like always."
She always does. Shiffrin expressed confidence coming into Cortina and with good reason. Shiffrin arrived at the snow-capped Dolomite mountains having already secured her record ninth World Cup season title in her signature discipline thanks to seven victories that have offered tangible proof she remains as dominant as ever at 30.
Shiffrin was careful to not put too much pressure on herself, having learned that every Olympic experience is different. There was joy at the 2014 Sochi Games and in Pyeongchang four years later. There was dismay in China after her ambitious schedule was pockmarked with baffling DNFs that left her sitting in the snow wondering what went wrong.
The spotlight she commanded in Beijing isn't quite so bright this time around, thanks in part to the return of Lindsey Vonn. Shiffrin also took a more calculated approach to Cortina, limiting herself to the team combined, giant slalom and the slalom.
The media area that was packed to watch Vonn in the downhill was a little more roomy on an overcast afternoon. When Shiffrin crossed the line, there wasn't a collective groan from the grandstand but shouts of joy from the winners nearby.
Shiffrin will spend Wednesday recovering. On Thursday, she'll point to the rest of an Olympics that may still have plenty to offer. Just not on Tuesday, when the comfort level she needed to get to full speed never arrived.
"I'm going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust in the short time we have before the other tech races," she said. "There's always something to learn."
___
AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report.
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
