(BEIJING) — Mikaela Shiffrin geared up for the Olympic Alpine combined by setting the fastest time in a downhill training session on Wednesday.
The two-time Olympic champion so far has failed to win a medal at the Beijing Games, skiing out in the giant slalom and the slalom—the two events she has gold medals in—and finishing ninth in the super-G and 18th in Tuesday’s downhill.
Next up is Thursday’s combined race, which adds the times from one downhill run and one slalom run.
Shiffrin is the current world champion in mixed and won silver in this event at 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
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The 26-year-old Shiffrin is far less experienced in the downhill but finished Wednesday’s training session 0.93 seconds ahead of Wendy Holdener of Switzerland.
“I mean, of course everyone thought Mikaela will have a medal until now but that shouldn’t be a bad thing,” said Holdener, who won bronze in the slalom last week to add to her silver in that event from Pyeongchang.
“It shows that skiing is a really difficult sport. You have to perform each day, you don’t know how the course is, how the slope is, so it’s really difficult. I guess that’s the reason.”
Holdener won bronze at the Alpine combination in Pyeongchang behind Shiffrin, Michelle Gisin, and her Swiss counterpart Michelle Gisin.
Gisin was one second behind Shiffrin, finishing in fourth. Ester Ledecka finished third, 0.94 shy of Shiffrin.
Ledecka is attempting to win a second event at a second straight Olympics after successfully defending her gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom.
On Wednesday only 14 skiers participated in training, and 12 from the start list opted out.
