Mikaela Shiffrin pulls out of downhill to concentrate on combined

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea - Two-time Olympic gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin dropped out of the downhill at the Pyeongchang Games so she can focus on the combined event that was moved to the following day.

Shiffrin’s decision was announced shortly after officials said they were moving the combined up a day to Wednesday (Pacific time) because of strong winds in the next day’s forecast.

“As much as I wanted to compete in the Olympic downhill, with the schedule change it’s important for me to focus my energy on preparing for the combined,” Shiffrin said in a statement Monday.

The downhill is tonight, so Shiffrin suddenly would have had to race on consecutive days. When she tried that earlier at these Olympics, she followed up her gold in the giant slalom by finishing fourth in the slalom.

Shiffrin had talked at the Sochi Games about aiming for five gold medals in 2018. Now she will end up competing in only three of the five individual events in South Korea.

Shiffrin finished 16th in Monday’s downhill training run at the Jeongseon Alpine Center. Teammate Lindsey Vonn, third in the training run, is the favorite in the race.