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Mikaela Shiffrin to skip downhill, focus on Alpine combined at 2018 Winter Olympics

This leaves her with just one more chance for a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
PARK CITY, UT - SEPTEMBER 25: Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin poses for a portrait during the Team USA Media Summit ahead of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games on September 25, 2017 in Park City, Utah.

The wind is messing with Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympics.

Shiffrin will skip Wednesday’s downhill after the Alpine combined was moved to Thursday. Strong winds are expected Friday, when the combined was originally scheduled to be run.

“As much as I wanted to compete in the Olympic downhill, with the schedule change it’s important for me to focus my energy on preparing for the combined,” Shiffrin said in a statement released by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

“I’m looking forward to cheering on our girls racing in the downhill and to compete myself in Thursday’s combined.”

Shiffrin came to Pyeongchang hoping to do all five events, with the chance to medal in all of them. But the wind soon blew those plans away, forcing both the giant slalom and slalom to be postponed last week. Shiffrin won gold in the giant slalom Thursday, but said after finishing fourth in the slalom that she would skip Saturday’s Super-G.

The rearranged schedule left no time for Shiffrin to train the Super-G, a speed event. She also hedged on doing the downhill, saying she wanted to see how training went.

Shiffrin, a medal favorite in the combined, was the fourth-fastest American both Sunday and Monday, and her mother and coach Eileen did not sound enthusiastic about her prospects.

“If Mikaela makes big strides and miraculously feels she could be a real contender by Wednesday, then she would race,” Eileen Shiffrin told Sports Illustrated. “But she would have to shave off some real time to do that and she can’t in good conscience take a spot from a teammate who seems more prepared and is faster and more familiar with the hill.”

That’s now a moot point, with Mother Nature making the decision for her.

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