MILAN — At the midpoint of the women’s team combined competition on Tuesday in Milan, the formidable American pair, Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin, held an exceptionally advantageous standing.
Johnson achieved the quickest time during the downhill segment of the event, thereby granting the sport’s most accomplished slalom athlete a lead of six-hundredths of a second.
The subsequent development saw a recurrence of Shiffrin’s all-too-common struggle at an Olympic event, undoubtedly bringing to mind her dreadful performance at the Beijing Winter Games from four years prior. The 30-year-old American not only lost her advantageous position but also failed to secure a medal spot for herself and Johnson.
Shiffrin’s slalom run ranked only 15th fastest among the 18 competitors who successfully finished the course. Consequently, she and Johnson dropped to fourth position, trailing the Austrian gold medalists, Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber, by over three-tenths of a second. The German team of Emma Aicher and Kira Weidle-Winkelmann claimed silver, with American athletes Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan earning bronze.
Shiffrin’s underwhelming execution prevented Johnson from acquiring what would have been her second medal at these Olympic Games. Just two days after securing Olympic gold in the women’s downhill, Johnson again showcased peak performance on Tuesday, skillfully choosing the optimal path down the slope and executing it with unwavering determination.
In the interval between the downhill and slalom segments of the contest, Johnson attempted to alleviate Shiffrin’s psychological strain by reassuring her long-standing friend that she was already guaranteed to depart with a medal.
“Hear me out, I’m not feeling any pressure,” Johnson communicated to Shiffrin. “I’ve already secured my Olympic gold medal.”
Based on Shiffrin’s skiing display, it seemed the pressure took its toll. Shiffrin exhibited uncharacteristic caution on the track, executing turns with greater curvature than usual, and swiftly squandering her advantage over Raedler and Huber.
Upon crossing the finish line, Shiffrin gazed at her recorded time with astonishment, understanding it was insufficient to maintain her and Johnson’s position for a medal. Television cameras documented Shiffrin hugging Johnson and expressing regret at the finish area.
For Shiffrin, the competition on Tuesday marks an arduous beginning to what she envisions as a comeback-focused Winter Games. Shiffrin had been expected to win gold in at least three of the six disciplines she participated in at Beijing four years prior, yet astonishingly, the most decorated World Cup skier in history returned home with three DNF results and no medals whatsoever.
Moments after commencing her defense of the 2018 Olympic giant slalom gold, Shiffrin lost her balance during a turn, slid across the snow, and bypassed the fifth gate. She committed a comparable blunder at the start of the slalom course in Beijing. This was analogous in skiing to witnessing LeBron James fail to score in an NBA Finals or Tom Brady tossing six interceptions in a Super Bowl.
Shiffrin faced additional difficulties in November 2024 when a severe accident in Killington, Vermont, caused her to tumble head over heels over her skis, resulting in an abdominal puncture wound. She anticipated a swift recovery, enabling her return to competition within a few months, but the ensuing post-traumatic stress disorder proved considerably more incapacitating than foreseen.
In a personal narrative about the experience published in The Players Tribune last May, Shiffrin detailed her involuntary stops during training sessions, finding her body unresponsive to her commands.
“It felt as if I had lost command over my own physical being,” she penned.
Shiffrin ultimately overcame these adversities, regaining her former proficiency. By February 23, 2025, she had become the inaugural skier to achieve 100 career World Cup triumphs. She has consistently accumulated further wins throughout the current season leading up to the Olympics.
In any other context, Shiffrin stands as the preeminent slalom skier in history, a technical virtuoso adept at executing the most precise turns to gain invaluable fractions of a second.
However, when competing at the Olympics, she continues to contend with regaining that peak performance.
