American skier Mikaela Shiffrin crashed out on her opening run of the giant slalom event at the Beijing Winter Olympics on Monday and was eliminated from the competition.
Shiffrin, who wiped out on her sixth turn, was one of 22 skiers to log a DNF on Xiaohaituo Mountain.
“The day was finished basically before it had even started, but I had really the right mentality and actually I am proud of those five turns,” Shiffrin told Beijing 2022. “I mean huge disappointment, not even counting medals, but just it’s a really fun hill and good conditions.
“I won’t ever get over this,” she added.
Shiffrin’s next opportunity is the slalom event that begins Wednesday. Shiffrin won gold in the event at Sochi 2014.
American figure skating hopeful Vincent Zhou has withdrawn from the men’s singles competition after testing positive for COVID-19.
“It seems pretty unreal that of all the people, it would happen to myself,” Zhou said in a video he posted to Instagram on Monday. “That’s not just because I’m still processing this turn of events but also because I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of Covid since the start of the pandemic. I’ve taken all the precautions I can. I’ve isolated myself so much that the loneliness I felt in the last month or two has been crushing at times.”
Zhou also won’t be on hand when his teammates collect their silver medals for placing second in the team figure skating competition. It was the U.S. team’s first silver in the event; they took bronze in Sochi (2014) and PyeongChang (2018). The Russian Olympic Committee took gold in the event and Japan bronze.
The U.S. now has three medals for the games, all silver.
The medals table:
Russia Olympic Committee: 7 (2 gold)
Canada 6 (1 gold)
Netherlands 5 (2 gold)
Italy: 5 (1 gold)
China 4 (2 gold)
Norway: 4 (2 gold)
Austria: 4
Japan: 4 (1 gold)
Sweden: 3 (3 gold)
Germany: 3 (2 gold)
Slovenia: 3 (2 gold)
United States: 3
France: 3
–Six other countries with two or fewer medals
–Field Level Media