BEIJING — The 1.7-mile downhill course plunges through barren brown hillsides, past haggard trees and towering gray rock faces, all transformed by a coating of snow from a storm that passed through a few days earlier.
As Mikaela Shiffrin raced through the wintry showcase at the Yanqing National Alpine Centre on Tuesday, she seemed to have been transformed too.
The world's top female skier didn't win the downhill or even come close.
