BEIJING — Mikaela Shiffrin will leave the Beijing Olympics empty-handed but not empty-hearted.
Shiffrin and the Americans lost to Norway in the bronze-medal race of the Alpine team event Sunday. River Radamus gave the Americans a chance, beating Timon Haugan to tie it at two apiece, but Norway took the bronze because its time was 0.42 seconds better.
"It hurts," Radamus said. "It really hurts."
As he looked at the scoreboard in the finish area, the rest of the U.S. team surrounded him in a group hug. It's the second fourth-place finish for the Olympic rookie, who missed the bronze medal in the giant slalom by 0.26 seconds.
"His medals are coming," Shiffrin said of Radamus, the only American who won all of his races in the team event.
"As an individual, you worry about, 'Am I going to be able to take that final step?' There's no question in my mind that he is already there," she added. "He carried this for us, he and Paula (Moltzan). They did such a good job."
For Shiffin, it was another unfulfilling ending. She had wanted to do the team event so badly she changed her departure from Beijing after high winds pushed the race back a day, even though she needs every recovery day she can get because she's still in contention for the overall World Cup title.
But Shiffrin said she didn't want to abandon her teammates, who have been hugely supportive of her in Beijing. She also did salvage something from the event, which featured head-to-head races in a single-elimination bracket.
Her leadoff win over Rebeka Jancova in the opening round was the first time she’d completed a slalom run in Beijing, and set the tone for the Americans to advance to the quarterfinals.
She lost her next three races by small margins, and shook her head after she crossed the finish line in her bronze-medal heat. But she was smiling as she and her teammates gathered together.
"It's the most special feeling, the most positive and optimistic feeling that I've had for this whole time that we've been here," Shiffrin said.
Shiffrin is one of the greatest skiers the sport has seen, a three-time Olympic medalist whose 73 World Cup victories are third-most behind Ingemar Stenmark and Lindsey Vonn. She was expected to contend for several medals here, but only finished two of her individual events
She recorded Did Not Finishes in the giant slalom, slalom and Alpine combined, her best events. She finished ninth in the super-G and was 18th in the downhill.
“I have literally no idea why we keep coming back and doing it, especially after today,” Shiffrin said Thursday after the combined. “But I’m going to come back out and ski some parallel GS because I’m that much of an idiot. I don’t know why we keep doing it, but making good turns feels amazing.”
Plus there was little pressure in the team event. There were only six Beijing medalists in the 15-team field, and two of them – slalom silver medalist Katharina Liensberger and Johannes Strolz, gold medalist in the Alpine combined and silver medalist in slalom – were on the powerhouse Austrian team that won gold. Germany won the silver medal.
"That potential is right there," Shiffrin said. "It's fourth, but it could have easily been bronze. It could have easily been gold, because that potential is there. And that's something I'm extremely proud of."
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