BEIJING (AP) 鈥� Not long after Mikaela Shiffrin , she wondered aloud to reporters about what sort of vitriol might be directed her way.
鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be a whole chaotic mess ... that people are saying about how I just fantastically failed these last couple weeks in the moments that actually counted,鈥� said after failing to finish the slalom run of the two-leg Alpine combined on Thursday. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really strange, but I鈥檓 not even afraid of that right now. Maybe that鈥檚 because I have zero emotional energy to give anymore.鈥�
Hours later, the 26-year-old American she might have seen on social media in reaction to Thursday鈥檚 fall, which followed similar mistakes in the giant slalom and slalom last week.
Some examples of what she included: 鈥淐hoker,鈥� 鈥淐an鈥檛 handle the pressure,鈥� 鈥淎rrogant.鈥�
referring to 鈥渢he people who have so much apparent hate.鈥�
Typed in all capital letters, her second post said, in part: 鈥淟et the turkeys get you down. There will always be turkeys. Or get up, again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again.鈥�
She continued: 鈥淛ust get up. It鈥檚 not always easy, but it鈥檚 also not the end of the world to fail. Fail twice. Fail 5 times. At the Olympics. (Enter me ...).鈥�
Shiffrin arrived in Beijing as one of the biggest stars of the Winter Olympics.
She won the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics at age 18, then added a gold in the giant slalom and a silver in the combined at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
Shiffrin also owns six world championship golds and three overall World Cup titles and is leading the current standings, too.
鈥淧ressure is a tough thing and expectation鈥檚 a tough thing, and that comes with the territory of being one of the greatest in the sport, ever,鈥� U.S. ski team head women鈥檚 coach Paul Kristofic said. 鈥淪he feels that and it weighs on her.鈥�
The best Shiffrin did at the 2022 Games was a ninth-place finish in the super-G and 18th in the downhill.
Her 鈥淒id Not Finish鈥� result in the giant slalom was her first in that event in more than four years, a streak of 30 races, and was followed by 鈥淒NFs鈥� in the slalom and combined.
While all of the individual ski races are done, Shiffrin does plan to enter a sixth contest Saturday: a team event that was added to the Olympics four years ago and closes the Alpine schedule.
Her second tweet ended with a mention of some of her U.S. teammates, such as Paula Moltzan and River Radamus, and ended with this: 鈥淚f you are playing the side of hater today, ignore me but definitely look out for them!鈥�
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AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report.
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More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press
