CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — U.S. Alpine skiing legend Mikaela Shiffrin is running out of chances to medal in the 2026 Winter Games, after falling short again in giant slalom under stunning blue skies in the mountains above Cortina.
Shiffrin has won more World Cup races than any other skier in history and she has been the overall leader in this winter's World Cup standings ahead of competition here.
But the Olympics have long stymied Shiffrin, since her stunning disappointment in 2022, when she left the Beijing Games empty-handed despite entering all six Alpine events.
The giant slalom, in particular, has been a challenge for Shiffrin. She won gold in the event in the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. But she has struggled since a crash in 2024 during a giant slalom race in Killington, Vt., in which she collided with a course gate and suffered a freak puncture wound to her abdomen.
She returned to the World Cup circuit later that winter but for months struggled with PTSD in the giant slalom event, she later said. It was only last month that Shiffrin finally reached a World Cup podium in the event for the first time since the injury, finishing third at Spindleruv Mlyn in Czechia. She was not expected to win Sunday's race.
After arriving in Italy for the Olympics, Shiffrin acknowledged still lacking the "drive" that top giant slalom racers bring to the race. "There are turns where I still back off that I see the top women who have been consistently winning races -- they drive harder. They push harder," she said on Feb. 7.
Still, Sunday marked the eighth straight Olympic event where she failed to reach the podium. Shiffrin was in sixth place after her second and final run of the day.
Speaking last week, after a lackluster performance that dropped the U.S. women out of medal contention in the team Alpine combined event, Shiffrin told reporters she was still making adjustments in Cortina.
"I didn't quite find a comfort level that allows me to produce full speed," Shiffrin said. "So I'm going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust in the short time we have before the other [technical discipline] races."
The good news for Shiffrin? Her final Olympic race on Wednesday is the slalom, widely considered her strongest event.
-NPR sports correspondent Becky Sullivan contributed reporting
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