So a case of nerves — she vomited prior to the first run — and what she termed “conservative” skiing in Friday’s slalom kept her off the podium in her best event. She finished fourth behind gold medalist Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, silver medalist Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, and bronze medalist Katharina Gallhuber of Austria.

American ski racing star Mikaela Shiffrin jumped aboard that crazy train when she won the women’s giant slalom on Thursday. The problem was, she also had a race on Friday.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — When an athlete wins a gold medal at the Olympics, the schedule suddenly becomes a whirlwind of activities.


“It was such an emotional high, and I think . . . I let myself feel too much yesterday, and then I had too much of the peaks and valleys,” said Shiffrin, who won gold in the slalom at the Sochi Games in 2014. “Too much of a peak yesterday, and too much of a valley today, and when you have two races in a row it’s really important to keep that mental energy stable, and I didn’t really do that.”

Shiffrin was .08 out of third place, and .40 behind Hansdotter. She was also in fourth place after the morning run.

“My mentality was definitely better in the second run. I didn’t puke, I was feeling much more in control of myself, but after how I skied in the first run, it just wasn’t there,” Shiffrin said.

After winning the giant slalom on Thursday, Shiffrin had countless obligations that come with winning at the Olympics. The US Ski Team anticipated the issues for Shiffrin and came up with what was termed a “victory management plan” to minimize the effect of them.

Once an event’s outcome is decided, there is the immediate celebration with those closest to the athlete — coaches and team members, family, and friends.


There is a ceremony at the venue at which the three medal winners are introduced to the crowd and presented with a small stuffed animal.

Then there are interviews with rights-holding media, followed by a full news conference in the venue media center, sometimes followed by more interviews. Then it’s off to the main press center for another news conference with media who did not attend the event, although on Thursday Shiffrin did not do that.

There can also be special requests from NBC, such as “Tonight” or “Today” show appearances.

Oh, and then there’s a medals ceremony. Sometimes medalists even head to their nation’s public house to join team reps and fans in the celebration, but Shiffrin skipped visiting USA House Thursday.

“We had the medals ceremony, which didn’t start I think until 8:05 or 8:10, and normally every day I’ve been trying to go to bed around 8:30 and I didn’t get to bed until like 10 last night after getting home from the awards,” Shiffrin said. “It was certainly not normal preparation, but I also knew that going into these Olympics that it’s not normal races, it’s not normal preparations, so I have to be prepared for anything.”

When she won the gold medal in the slalom in Sochi, Shiffrin was up until 4 a.m. meeting all the demands.

This time, she faced another day of competition, and a case of nerves hit her just before the start. She was open about her struggles with nervousness last season, and thought she’d be able to manage it Friday.


“I dealt with that all season long last year, so actually when that happened I thought, ‘Huh, OK, well I’ve dealt with this before, I’m fine,’ ” Shiffrin said. “But when I ended up skiing the course, I skied it really, really conservatively, and that’s just not something that deserves to win a medal.”

Shiffrin also said she let her deficit after the morning run affect her.

“I was almost trying to do something special, and I don’t need to do something special, I just need to ski like myself and it would be fine,” Shiffrin said.

On the World Cup circuit, Shiffrin has won six of seven slalom races, and she is the overall leader by a wide margin over Holdener. She also has two giant slalom victories and a downhill victory.

Enormous expectations have accompanied Shiffrin to these Games because she’s become more than just a slalom specialist. Many believe she would win multiple medals in PyeongChang.

“Right now, I’m more disappointed with how I felt on my skis today than with being in fourth. So I think that’s maybe the one saving grace about today for me is that I’m not lying when I tell you it’s not about the medals, it’s not about the winning races, but it’s about how I feel on my skis,” she said.

“I know that . . . and this is going to sound so arrogant . . . I know that I’m the best slalom skier in the world, because I’ve done that skiing so much. And what I did in the race today was not even anywhere close to that.”


Shiffrin’s Olympics are not over, however. She will shift now to the speed events, where the US will determine its starters based on performance in the training runs, although she has ruled out Saturday’s super-G. Shiffrin has a World Cup downhill win to her name this season and could compete in that, plus the Alpine combined.

Shiffrin said Friday she’s not the best at moving past a loss.

“I’m terrible at that. Every single loss that I’ve ever had. I remember that feeling so thoroughly, it’s like a piece of my heart breaks off and I can never get it back,” she said.

But she has a plan.

“For sure I’m going to be going back and evaluating the whole day with my whole team, everybody who is around me. They know me the best and we’ll all figure out what happened today and try to avoid that kind of thing in the future.”