Mikaela Shiffrin leaves door open to skipping downhill at 2018 Winter Olympics
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Mikaela Shiffrin might not be as busy as originally expected.
Shiffrin left the door open to not doing the downhill, saying after her surprising fourth-place finish in slalom Friday that it would depend on training. She had already ruled out Saturday’s Super-G because the postponements of the slalom and giant slalom didn’t leave her enough time to train for speed training.
“The downhill decision is going to be based on basically how everybody does in the training runs,” Shiffrin said. “I’m ready to see the downhill course, see how it feels. I’ll be doing the combined, so I am looking forward to that.”
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Shiffrin came to the Pyeongchang Olympics hoping to race all five events, and she would have been a favorite to win a medal – possibly even the gold -- in all of them. But blustery wind conditions pushed back both the giant slalom, originally scheduled for Monday, and the slalom, which was supposed to be run Wednesday.
That would have meant three consecutive races if she’d done the Super-G, and that was too much, her mother and coach, Eileen, said after Shiffrin took gold in the GS on Thursday.
“We’re just going to get her a day of rest and then go do the downhill and combined,” Eileen Shiffrin said.
The downhill is Wednesday and the alpine combined is next Friday.