Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin disqualifies from giant slalom

Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin was disqualified from women's giant slalom medal contention in Beijing on Monday as she missed a gate early in her run.

The 26-year-old Colorado native was a favorite in the race as its returning champion, but her goal of becoming the first American alpine skier to win three Olympic gold medals was dashed early Monday with a speed wobble of a ski.

Shiffrin got off to a fast start on the Ice River course, and was rounding the first few gates well until her skies started to skid from under her less than a dozen seconds in, causing her to miss an early gate on the sixth turn.

"The day was finished basically before it had even started," she said, calling the spill a "huge disappointment."

Shiffrin said her fall will raise a lot of questions about what went wrong this ski season, including a back injury that kept her from training.

She was also sidelined from the slopes by a 10-day quarantine requirement by Chinese authorities prior to the Games.

Ultimately, she said, it was just one bad turn.

"We can go to a lot of different places in the season where we can put blame but the easiest thing to say is that I skied a couple of good turns and I skied one turn a bit wrong and I really paid the hardest consequence for that," she said.

"I won't ever get over this. I have never got over any [disappointment in big races]," she said. "That heartbreak never goes away and I think that's what drives me to keep working. Sometimes they still do happen and unfortunately it happened today."

With Shiffrin out, there will be a new champion upon the women's giant slalom podium.

However, she still has a chance to capture gold during this Olympics as there are four more alpine skiing events to go.