When I am left sifting through the rubble, trying to find any semblance of hope, I try to remember my father's advice: "You can't control the things that happen."
If only I had said that or thought to plan for X, this wouldn't have happened. It happened again.
During the slalom portion of the Alpine combined race, Shiffrin skied out on the 10th gate. She was in a good position to get her first Olympic podium after sitting in fifth after the downhill.
It was not going to happen.
There was something about this course that didn't click with the favorite who didn't medal in any of the events she was supposed to win. She needs a lot of help from her team if she is to break the record for most career Olympic golds won by a US Alpine skier. She will have to wait four years for a chance at the next Winter Games if they fall short Friday.
It will be difficult for Shiffrin to get over what happened in 2022, and she admitted in an interview with NBC that she was still shaking from the slalom course.
She said that she was not feeling confident with the slalom.
It has become a habit to say you are just going to do your best. People think it's a sign that you care more about having fun than winning. It is a result of the participation medal era. We want these athletes to care about winning so much that it consumes their entire being.
Okay, cool, you hear that? Never let it go. Use the experience as motivation. You can whip throwing knives at the picture of the slalom course. You will have your rightful Olympic glory if you spend the last four years of your 20s obsessed with your screw ups.
Say fuck it and do whatever works for you. It happened, find an actual ski area, shred some powder, and try not to think about it. Everyone is allowed to react to bad shit in their own way, and both approaches can work.
It doesn't mean you're a loser or a joke when you know the exhilaration of winning and have the expectations that come with success.
Shiffrin said after the event that he didn't know if anyone had failed that hard with so many opportunities. It is a joke. That's fine. I wanted to have a good run of slalom down this hill, but I will be left wanting there.
She isn't the first or last athlete with regrets, and the last thing any athlete would say about her is that she's a joke. Not holding trial events at hastily constructed ski areas before the Olympics is a joke.
Several crashes have been reported, and former athletes have criticized the conditions. Shiffrin isn't blaming the snow because she's putting all of this on her shoulders. It's admirable, and if she feels that way, that's fine. It looks like she isn't taking responsibility for her poor skiing if the conditions are ripped. It would be a disservice to not take all of the factors into account when reflecting on the outcome in private.
Sometimes shit is our fault, but the hardest ones to overcome are the ones that don't have an explanation. Shiffrin tried to give insight into her mindset while she was at the Olympics.
I think there is a lot of positive and positive in my skiing. I had some of the best skiing I have ever done here in Beijing, in the downhill over the last week, in my slalom, even today. I didn't make it to the finish in the race, and that's never happened in my entire career, so I don't understand it. Despite how much it stinks, there was so much positive that happened in the last couple weeks.
Sometimes you have to take it, I guess. Next time, try to fix it. I don't know what to do. That is the frustrating thing. I don't think there is anything to fix. It went really, really wrong.
The Olympics have gone badly for Shiffrin. The only thing left to do is figure out the right way for her to react.
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