Yanqing (China) (AFP) - Mikaela Shiffrin will leave the Beijing Games without an individual medal after dramatically crashing out of the slalom section of the alpine combined event on Thursday.
It was a third failure to finish in China for the fancied two-time Olympic gold medallist after she skied out of both the slalom and giant slalom.
Shiffrin lasted longer than the five gates she negotiated in the two technical races before sliding out, but not by much.
Forcing the edges of her skis, the 26-year-old American went wide on one turn and, as hard as she battled, could not correct her trajectory.
She was left looking back up the "Ice River" course shaking her head in the knowledge that she would not add to golds she had won in the slalom at the 2014 Sochi Olympics and giant slalom four years later in Pyeongchang.
Shiffrin's exits from her favoured slalom and giant slalom here were the first time since 2011 -- when she was making her World Cup season debut at the age of 16 -- that she had failed to finish in two back-to-back technical races.
Those failures left her questioning her self-belief, but she vowed not to shed any tears because it was a "waste of energy", showing admirable humility and renewed determination to take part in all five individual events as well as Saturday's programme-ending mixed team parallel.
Before competition started, Shiffrin admitted she would be disappointed to leave the Beijing Olympics without a medal, but also warned it was impossible to have two "perfect weeks" at a Games.
