In a shocking turn at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, American skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin delivered one of the most uncharacteristic performances of her storied career, finishing 15th out of 18 competitors in the slalom portion of the women’s team combined event on Tuesday.
The result, her worst completed slalom placement since March 17, 2012—when she was just 17 years old—dropped Shiffrin and teammate Breezy Johnson from a commanding position after Johnson’s dominant downhill run into a heartbreaking fourth place, missing the podium by a razor-thin 0.06 seconds.
Shiffrin, the undisputed queen of slalom with 71 World Cup victories in the discipline and an Olympic gold medal to her name, started tentatively and never found her rhythm on the Olympia delle Tofane course. She lost time at every intermediate checkpoint, crossing the line with a time of 45.38 seconds—well off the pace set by leaders like Germany’s Emma Aicher.
Despite entering the slalom leg with a slim lead thanks to Johnson’s first-place downhill effort, Shiffrin’s subdued run allowed Austria’s Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber to surge to gold, while Germany took silver. Meanwhile, fellow Americans Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan claimed bronze in the event’s debut Olympic appearance.
The performance extends Shiffrin’s ongoing Olympic medal drought to seven consecutive races without a podium finish, dating back to the disappointing 2022 Beijing Games where she endured multiple DNFs (did not finish). At 30, the most decorated alpine skier in history—with a record 108 World Cup wins overall and dominance in the current 2025/26 season, including seven slalom victories and the slalom Crystal Globe already clinched—Shiffrin arrived in Italy as the heavy favorite in technical events.
Yet Tuesday’s outcome has amplified scrutiny on her Olympic struggles, where pressure and expectations have repeatedly overshadowed her unparalleled consistency on the World Cup circuit.
Post-race, Shiffrin acknowledged the uncharacteristic effort: “Coming to the finish… I wasn’t sure where that was going to end up because I could tell on the track that it wasn’t something like the rest of the season has been.”
With the individual giant slalom and slalom events still ahead, the spotlight now intensifies on whether the greatest technical skier of her generation can reclaim her Olympic magic—or if the “Olympic hex” will persist.
For now, the sport’s biggest star faces a rare moment of vulnerability, reminding fans that even legends can have off days on the biggest stage.
