This Superstar US Skier Feels 'Like A Joke' & She Keeps Crashing At The Olympics
Mikaela Shiffrin is having a hard time with the expectations.
U.S. Olympic skier Mikaela Shiffrin was expected to win a bunch of gold medals in Beijing.
But things haven't gone her way, and now the hard-luck athlete is calling herself a "joke" after five failed ski runs at the Games.
Shiffrin tripped on a gate and crashed out of her final individual event on Thursday, blowing her fifth shot at a medal.
One of the best skiers in the world somehow failed to finish three of her five events in Beijing, and she didn't win a medal in the other two.
"I don't know if there's anybody who ever had so many opportunities to get a medal in the Olympic Games and actually failed so many times on it," said Shiffrin afterward, according to BBC Sport.
She also explained that she was trying really hard not to screw this one up, after piling up so many bad runs earlier at the Games.
"My plan, well, it was quite simple [...] Just make the turns, try to be clean, fresh on the outside skis. Specifically, I just wanted to be calm from the start and get into my tempo and just build it from there," said Shiffrin as reported by The Guardian.
Shiffrin currently holds the record for most World Cup slalom wins out of both men's and women's races, totalling 47 wins. She's also had an impressive career, competing in 228 championship events across the world and representing the U.S. at two past Olympics.
Shiffrin was predicted to win gold medals at these Games, but now she's just trying to make the best of a nightmare that seems to keep on snowballing.
"I've had a lot of support over the last few weeks. I appreciate it so much. And I've also had a bit of a storm. You know, what went wrong? Caves under the pressure, chokes, all this stuff, and I think there's probably some truth to all of it," said Shiffrin to BBC.
She shared some of the social media hate she's been getting in an Instagram story on Thursday, with some calling her a "choker" who "can't handle the pressure."
But Shiffrin vowed to get back up and keep trying again in an emotional post.
Shiffrin will get one last shot at redemption in the mixed team parallel slalom on Saturday.
"I’m going to come back out tomorrow and ski some parallel giant slalom because I’m that much of an idiot!" she told the AFP.