Mikaela Shiffrin arrived at the 2022 Winter Olympics with the goal of competing in all five individual Alpine skiing disciplines, something she had never done before at the Winter Games.
She’ll end up going one step further before the Olympic flame is extinguished.
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Shiffrin confirmed to Eurosport that she will cap off her Winter Games on Feb. 19 by joining the United States squad for the first time in the mixed team parallel slalom competition.
“I’m going to do the team event as well,” she said following the women’s downhill Tuesday. The downhill was Shiffrin’s fourth event of the Games, one she had never before contested at the Olympics.
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The 26-year-old American had already committed to Thursday’s women’s combined event, in which she is the defending silver medalist.
Only one woman, Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, has ever entered six Alpine skiing events at a single Olympics. She did so four years ago in PyeongChang, the first Games to include the mixed team event. Vlhova left the 2022 Games ahead of schedule to treat an ankle injury, but not before winning her first Olympic gold medal in the women’s slalom.
Things haven’t gone nearly as well for Shiffrin at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center. Her best finish thus far is ninth in the super-G, to go along with the first two DNFs (giant slalom and slalom) and a finish outside the top 10 (18th in downhill) for the first time in her Olympic career.
However, she’s now given herself two chances to not leave empty-handed. Shiffrin will be a gold-medal favorite in the combined event, and her presence in the team event puts the U.S. in the discussion for a medal there. She will likely compete alongside Paula Moltzan, who finished eighth in the women’s slalom. Luke Winters is the only American entered into the men’s slalom on Wednesday.