Mikaela Shiffrin Skiis Out in Slalom Again - Someone please explain what's going on?

Mikeala didn't quit like Biles did so she is 1,000x better in my book. One quit even though she had pads under her to cushion her fall while the other pushed through when she had a mountain under her.

She didn't do well but she didn't quit.

Several factors:

Ski racing is a very technical skill sport. Mikaela is a very technical and sensitive person. She basically has the yips. The snow is very funky(all man made, additional sand blows on it from the desert winds, and super cold creates a grabby feeling instead of a flowy feeling)

She trains more hours than anyone, working on tiny details. When she doesn't get these hours and details, she loses a tremendous amount of  confidence . Her mother is also her main coach, and, while technically good with Mikaela, she's psycho. They fired one of her coaches only a few weeks ago. 
perfect storm. I wish her the best in the Team Parrallel comp.

This is one of the better if not best analysis in this general debacle of a thread. Glad to see wejo get voted down heavily so far on this thread.

Dan Jansen's falls in the Olympics might be a better parallel. But he did come back and eventually win gold. Shiffrin has already done it, so who knows if she'll be back again at the Olympics. But won't don't if she races world championships next year and wins a bunch more World Cups in the process.

This slalom, giant slalom, super giant slalom stuff is the equivalent of the extra 3 swimming strokes besides the fast kind.

Alpine skiing is downhill. The "downhill" should be the event, and that's all they should get. I don't care who can do the most tight turns between a bunch of little flags. Are they supposed to be simulating a suicide run through real obstacles such as trees? No real-life useful application, not a sport.

Just put them on a hill, have them ski down, and get it over with.

???  
Michael Phelps won 3 golds. 
Then he went out and won 20 more. That’s what you can prove. 

Biggest flat out choke since, ...Biles and her twisties.

Not that she didn't win or even medal but the mental breakdown was epic. Maybe she should go the way of Suzy Hamilton?

C'mon, get serious. The downhill is brutal. Do you really want to contemplate going 70 mph on 70mm wide skis? It's not like this is unprecedented at the Olympics, especially like China that don't have a strong tradition of putting on downhill events. Thems just the breaks....

Uh, in the FIS 2021-22 World Cup competition Mikayla Shiffrin is currently ranked FIRST, slightly ahead of Vlova. She’s not racking up points lately as fast as she was in December, but first place is not ‘struggling’ to me. 

Her father died over two years ago. You can’t quantify a specific mourning period, especially when it’s a sudden death, but I’m hoping she finds peace there... soon.

Maybe it’s the snow also - but Mikayla’s mindset is not there. She told everyone to drop their expectations before the games. Why?   Why wouldn’t she podium in the slalom and GS?   Only she knows.  

Agreed, while we’re at it we should only have one track event - the fastest one: 100m over beach sand. Why should runners race on a polished, unnatural surface like a mondo track. Now that I think of it, why should cyclists have gears and brakes? Why don’t swimmers swim in shark infested open water?

Don't be ignorant for the sake of ignorance BW…Be Better.

I respect them both for different reasons. Biles didn't get to GOAT status because she is mentally weak. I honestly think she did her teammates a favor. But I can see both sides of either case.

I assume you feel the same way about hurdles events in track? And do we really need 100, 200, and 400m runs? Is the steeple supposed to simulate people jumping over a creek? And besides race walking, no event in T&F is more contrived than the triple jump.

Why jump over hurdles or a water pit . A cat 🐈 or dog 🐩 would just run around them . Do they run in a circle because parent are afraid their kids wont find their way back if they only run in a straight line

Don't interfere with the time-honored tradition of pointing out things that aren't a sport.

Why should ice hockey, which is a sport, only get one set of medals? Maybe we should have sprint hockey, and lake hockey, and tiny-rink hockey too to balance things out. This is after all the premier event of the winter games.

The sarcasm attempt about track is pretty ironic because it does have too many events. Get rid of hurdles, triple jump, pole vault, discus, shot, and the 4x100 relay. We also don't need all these prelims to weed out the 11 flat 100m guys.

Don't be ridiculous. There is no scenario that exists where she will be considered a better skier than the male skiers. That's just absurd. Alberto Tomba won 5 Olympic medals including 3 golds in 3 winter Olympics in the same events she excels in (Slalom and GS). She has three in 3 Olympics and unlikely to get an more in Beijing, so it will take her at least 4 Olympics to get 5. It's crazy what people come up with in this forum. She wouldn't be remotely competitive against men. That would be like saying Sifan Hassan would be considered the best runner of all time if she wins a few more medals. 

She’s a 3-time Olympian with 2 gold medals who’s having hard time right now and has been candid about it.  At her age, you had recently finishing sucking in college, as you put it.   Now, you can’t understand why she isn’t at the top of her game.   That’s what’s going on.

Literally 3 different circumstances. One a druggie, one sitting out due to mental issues, and one not knowing she had mental issues, if that even is the problem!

Gutted for Shiffrin, seems like she has caught a bad case of the Yips, which seem distinct from the Twisties which seem like they only apply to acrobatic sports where you are flipping and twisting

This is mental period. The irony off all this is not only is she the best women's skier in history by the age of 24/25, and its not even close, she is well known for her almost flawless record of never skiing out due to a mistake. She is not a go for broke skiier. Thus skiing out 3 times in her best event in a few days has to be mental to me. She essentially has the yips.

Exactly. Why have different sports at all? Mature people running after some ball - what a nonsense. Swimming? For fish. Klimbing? For chimpansees.

Let them fight while they have to reach Mount Everest. Everything allowed.