Mikaela Shiffrin said her slalom fall haunted her for days and came back to bite her in her best shot at a gold medal

• Mikaela Shiffrin skied out during the slalom portion of the women's combined at the Winter Olympics.
• It was the third time at Beijing 2022 that Shiffrin fell in an event she hoped to medal.

Mikaela Shiffrin's Winter Olympics didn't go according to plan.

Last week, Shiffrin stunningly skied out of the giant slalom and the slalom, two events in which she was expected to medal or even win gold.

Shiffrin at least made it down the mountain in her next two events — the super-G and the downhill — finishing 9th and 18th, respectively, but still was far from the multiple-medal Olympics many had envisioned.

Shiffrin looked like she had a shot at redemption in the women's combined, in which racers take on both the downhill and the slalom course, and the skier with the fastest cumulative time wins.

Through the downhill, Shiffrin looked strong, finishing with the fifth-best time in the first leg of the event.

Given that Shiffrin had gotten through the downhill so high up the leaderboard, and with the slalom, her specialty, still to go, a spot on the podium was well within reach.

But despite Shiffrin being in a good position to finally win a medal in Beijing, she didn't sound too confident in her coming run. Speaking with NBC between the downhill and slalom portions of the event, Shiffrin offered a candid summation of her headspace heading into the race.

"I'm not feeling totally confident with the slalom," Shiffrin said. "I mean, I have a recurring image of myself skiing out on the fifth gate again, so I'm just going to do my best."

Unfortunately for Shiffrin, her words would prove prophetic.

Just 10 gates into her run at the slalom, she skied out once again, bringing what looked like a potential day of redemption to a disappointing end.

Despite her struggles, Shiffrin held her head high after the race.

"I think there's a lot of positive, and a lot of positive even in my skiing," Shiffrin said on the broadcast, per ESPN. "I had some really great — some of the best skiing I've ever done here in Beijing, in the training, in the downhill over the last week, in my slalom, even today. In the race, in the moment, when it counts, then I didn't make it to the finish, and that's never happened in my entire career, so I don't understand it. But there was so much positive that's happened in the last couple weeks despite how much it really stinks."

Shiffrin still has one shot left at earning a medal in Beijing, with the mixed team parallel slalom set to be contested on Saturday.