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Mikaela Shiffrin fails to finish again, ending chance at individual Olympic medal

Mikaela Shiffrin was fifth after the downhill portion of the women's alpine combined. All that was left was the slalom for a shot at a Beijing Olympics medal.

BEIJING, China — Mikaela Shiffrin skied out in the Alpine combined on Thursday and once again was unable to finish a race at the Beijing Olympics. She will leave the 2022 Games without an individual medal after participating in all five women’s events.

Not only did she go 0 for 5, but the 26-year-old American did not even manage to complete three of those races.

Shiffrin was fifth-fastest in the downhill portion of the two-run combined on Thursday morning but went out without making it to the bottom in the slalom leg in the afternoon.

Swiss skier Michele Gisin won the combined for her second consecutive gold in the event; Shiffrin was the runner-up to her four years ago. Switzerland is the first country to win five Alpine golds at one Olympics.

Gisin's teammate, Wendy Holdener, was next, more than a second back, for the silver on Thursday, while Federica Brignone of Italy got the bronze.

Shiffrin came to China as one of the biggest stars in winter sports and already the owner of two Olympic gold medals — from the slalom in 2014 and the giant slalom in 2018.

But her trip to China began with a mistake about five seconds into the first run of the two-leg giant slalom on Feb. 7, followed by a similar error after about the same amount of time in the first run of the two-leg slalom on Feb. 9.

The owner of three overall World Cup titles then arrived ninth in the super-G last Friday and 18th in the downhill on Tuesday. Those were her Olympic debuts in those disciplines.

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Here's how Mikaela Shiffrin has done in previous alpine combined events

Shiffrin has said she plans to enter the team event Saturday. That concludes the Alpine schedule in Beijing.

The slalom course was set by Mike Day, Shiffrin’s main coach with the U.S. ski team — the result of a random draw.

Shiffrin’s best event for years has been the slalom.

She won a gold medal in that discipline at age 18 at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and her 47 career World Cup slalom victories are more than any other racer has won in any discipline.

Travis Pittman contributed to this report.

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