Zürcher Nachrichten - Shiffrin admits no Beijing medal would be 'disappointing'

EUR -
AED 4.313975
AFN 80.547545
ALL 97.434934
AMD 449.73046
ANG 2.102303
AOA 1077.171324
ARS 1492.791377
AUD 1.764031
AWG 2.116752
AZN 2.0016
BAM 1.955498
BBD 2.367734
BDT 143.357833
BGN 1.958424
BHD 0.442032
BIF 3495.35953
BMD 1.174668
BND 1.502568
BOB 8.102747
BRL 6.532923
BSD 1.172619
BTN 101.493307
BWP 15.744565
BYN 3.837607
BYR 23023.499991
BZD 2.355536
CAD 1.60865
CDF 3393.617337
CHF 0.926897
CLF 0.028411
CLP 1114.547663
CNY 8.403625
CNH 8.419418
COP 4775.561579
CRC 592.408399
CUC 1.174668
CUP 31.128712
CVE 110.247953
CZK 24.57048
DJF 208.817712
DKK 7.463496
DOP 71.148999
DZD 152.157473
EGP 57.684081
ERN 17.620026
ETB 163.190867
FJD 2.634488
FKP 0.873886
GBP 0.867394
GEL 3.18381
GGP 0.873886
GHS 12.254105
GIP 0.873886
GMD 84.57654
GNF 10176.42647
GTQ 9.000608
GYD 245.342064
HKD 9.220682
HNL 30.706252
HRK 7.537617
HTG 153.886205
HUF 396.850416
IDR 19217.339549
ILS 3.939608
IMP 0.873886
INR 101.616219
IQD 1536.162471
IRR 49468.226083
ISK 142.276286
JEP 0.873886
JMD 187.051077
JOD 0.832886
JPY 173.446879
KES 151.506573
KGS 102.553011
KHR 4697.273684
KMF 491.603168
KPW 1057.201531
KRW 1624.959912
KWD 0.358662
KYD 0.977249
KZT 639.001194
LAK 25279.09122
LBP 105069.953557
LKR 353.815291
LRD 235.113646
LSL 20.812382
LTL 3.468491
LVL 0.710546
LYD 6.330021
MAD 10.545169
MDL 19.72395
MGA 5179.199166
MKD 61.550483
MMK 2466.137469
MNT 4214.430294
MOP 9.481134
MRU 46.800763
MUR 53.342135
MVR 18.094285
MWK 2033.385588
MXN 21.791567
MYR 4.958867
MZN 75.131746
NAD 20.812382
NGN 1799.510154
NIO 43.153327
NOK 11.939518
NPR 162.388891
NZD 1.952022
OMR 0.45182
PAB 1.172619
PEN 4.153358
PGK 4.860248
PHP 67.132737
PKR 332.301418
PLN 4.249143
PYG 8783.641829
QAR 4.274539
RON 5.067641
RSD 117.131888
RUB 93.035614
RWF 1695.037905
SAR 4.407246
SBD 9.732239
SCR 16.61843
SDG 705.392672
SEK 11.182226
SGD 1.503815
SHP 0.923105
SLE 26.959075
SLL 24632.212956
SOS 670.196371
SRD 43.067458
STD 24313.263549
STN 24.496212
SVC 10.260413
SYP 15272.789827
SZL 20.804783
THB 38.024448
TJS 11.198868
TMT 4.123086
TND 3.423471
TOP 2.751195
TRY 47.660213
TTD 7.973767
TWD 34.632517
TZS 3004.935362
UAH 49.031718
UGX 4204.349902
USD 1.174668
UYU 46.972737
UZS 14837.70572
VES 141.281363
VND 30711.704452
VUV 139.313216
WST 3.217402
XAF 655.855588
XAG 0.030777
XAU 0.000352
XCD 3.1746
XCG 2.113373
XDR 0.815674
XOF 655.855588
XPF 119.331742
YER 283.036769
ZAR 20.886665
ZMK 10573.429114
ZMW 27.351771
ZWL 378.242735
  • RBGPF

    -1.1200

    73.88

    -1.52%

  • SCS

    0.0700

    10.58

    +0.66%

  • VOD

    -0.0900

    11.43

    -0.79%

  • CMSC

    0.0550

    22.485

    +0.24%

  • RELX

    -0.9800

    52.73

    -1.86%

  • NGG

    -0.0800

    72.15

    -0.11%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0400

    13.2

    -0.3%

  • GSK

    -0.2600

    37.97

    -0.68%

  • BTI

    -0.3700

    52.25

    -0.71%

  • RIO

    -0.7300

    63.1

    -1.16%

  • AZN

    -1.0200

    72.66

    -1.4%

  • SCU

    0.0000

    12.72

    0%

  • BCE

    -0.2300

    24.2

    -0.95%

  • BP

    0.0700

    32.2

    +0.22%

  • BCC

    1.7100

    88.14

    +1.94%

  • JRI

    -0.0600

    13.09

    -0.46%

  • CMSD

    0.0400

    22.89

    +0.17%

Shiffrin admits no Beijing medal would be 'disappointing'
Shiffrin admits no Beijing medal would be 'disappointing'

Shiffrin admits no Beijing medal would be 'disappointing'

US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin has admitted she would be disappointed to leave the Beijing Olympics without a medal, but has warned it is impossible to have two "perfect weeks" at a Games.

Text size:

Shiffrin is one of the headline acts at Beijing 2022, hunting a third gold after triumphing in slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games and giant slalom four years later in Pyeongchang.

Aged just 26, the four-time world slalom champion and three-time World Cup overall winner has progressed from a pure technical skier to a true all-rounder.

She is the sole skier, male or female, to have won in all six International Ski Federation (FIS) disciplines, having stepped up from slalom and giant slalom to also claim World Cup wins in both the super-G -- four times -- and downhill (two) as well as parallel slalom and alpine combined.

Needless to say, expectations are sky high, with Shiffrin set to enter at least three events at the Olympics.

"There is going to be some level of disappointment if I walk away with no medal," she said.

"I don’t think it's possible to walk away without any level of disappointment. I don't think you can truly say: 'I'm not disappointed about how something went'.

"I've never in my life had three weeks where I had no regrets and no disappointment so it definitely can't be expected at the Olympics… It's just a fact of life!"

She conceded that medal expectations were understandable, but the Olympics involved "a lot of moving pieces".

"There are a lot of factors that are not really under your control. Most of it is actually out of your control, not even the way you experience a normal World Cup race," she said.

"At the Olympics, it’s impossible to have the perfect two weeks."

- Public scrutiny 'challenging' -

Shiffrin acknowledged that public scrutiny was part and parcel of competitive but said it could be "very challenging".

"That wasn't necessarily something that I've signed up for. You don't necessarily expect the level of that and how awful it is to feel like you have disappointed a nation of people that you don't know, you've never met and you’ll probably never will."

Turning to what promises to be a packed schedule, Shiffrin said it was a "little bit wait-and-see".

"The biggest event in question would be the downhill," for which training runs will be "a mini-qualifier (for the US team) because we have more than four women here who can race the downhill and be fast".

“That’s very exciting and I do not feel like I need to take that spot if we have fully capable athletes filling those spots who are faster than I am.

"So we’re going to see in the training runs where we stack up and what my potential truly is on that track and go from there.

"It's very nearly a game-time decision."

Shiffrin said she was happy the men had gone first on the speed venue at the man-made pistes of the Chinese National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing -- the men's downhill takes place on Sunday.

"It’s a really nice slope for speed, some really nice, cool rolling terrain, everything is really smooth," she said.

"Trying to get used to a new venue, maybe more for speed than anything else, can be a little bit tricky, because you’ve never run it before, but luckily for the women the men are going first!"

F.Carpenteri--NZN