BEIJING — Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin’s first trip down the race hill at the Beijing Games lasted just five turns and mere seconds Monday, ending in a disqualification from the opening leg of the giant slalom that she called “a huge disappointment.”
The seventh racer on a course known as The Ice River at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center, and the defending champion, the 26-year-old American lost control coming around a left-turn gate, slid and fell on her side. Eventually, she got up and stopped on the side of slope, stuck her poles in the snow and put her hands on her hips.
“The day was finished, basically,” Shiffrin said, “before it even started.”
She still could have a handful of chances over the next two weeks to become the first Alpine ski racer from the United States to win three Olympic golds across a career. Shiffrin hopes to enter all five…
