Mikaela Shiffrin sat on the snow beside the slalom course, skis in front of her, poles to the side, her head buried in her arms.

The two-time Olympic champion, the most successful slalom skier of all time, was out of her pet event in Beijing.

For the second time in as many races at this Olympic Games, she failed to negotiate the fifth gate of the course and registered a DNF – did not finish.

This is uncharted territory.

"I've never been in this position before and I don't know how to handle it," Shiffrin told the Olympic News Service.

"Honestly, I am at a loss. It's hard to really know what went wrong aside from I slipped up a bit on one turn and didn't have enough space to recover from it."

Shiffrin failing to finish a race is rare. In slalom racing, it's virtually unheard of.

When she failed to finish the second run at the World Cup event at Kranjska Gora in January, that was her first DNF in the event since January 2018.

In fact, the 26-year-old American has only failed to finish a slalom race three times in the last eight years – an extraordinary record in a sport where just one mistake can be terminal for your chances.

No wonder she sat there on the side of the course for close to half an hour, contemplating what had gone wrong.

Shiffrin is inarguably one of the most gifted alpine skiers of all time, with the third most World Cup victories (73) ever, as well as five world championship titles and three Olympic medals.

As a result, she was the American pin-up of this Games.

But with that growing profile came the pressure and expectation that stardom entails.

It's not something she's ever enjoyed.

In an October interview with the Washington Post, Shiffrin described the Olympics as being "terrifying for the entire two weeks straight" and said that, at the PyeongChang Games, she felt a way she "never, ever wanted to feel again".

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But pressure cannot be removed as easily as a helmet and gloves.

"You feel like this moment is building and building and building and you feel a bit weighed down by it," Shiffrin said.

"But I am OK to feel that way. I am not scared to feel a little bit weighed down by some expectation anymore.

"Maybe because it doesn't feel like you can't let it go and say, 'That's not the worst thing I ever experienced in life.'

"As hard as it is right now, it's not comparable to some of the worst things that I have experienced."

It's certainly not the worst thing that she has experienced. Shiffrin is at this Games for the first time without her father, who died suddenly in 2020.

However, so much of Shiffrin's identity is tied up with success in skiing, making any stumble, however rare, so painful.

"[I feel] pretty awful," she said.

"But I won't feel awful forever, that's for sure. Just pretty low right now."

The line between success and failure is a fine one that athletes at the top level walk every day they compete.

As we have seen with Matt Graham, Emily Arthur and countless others in Beijing, the global visibility of the Olympics means the anguish of these athletes is often portrayed in a very public way.

There is nowhere to hide from the glare of the cameras and inquisitive journalists and spectators, who miss nothing as the tears flow and the shoulders heave in the mixed zone, far from the comfort of the changing room.

Because as high has the highs are, the lows are simply cavernous.

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Shiffrin's partner, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won bronze in the men's Super G earlier in the Games, wrote on Instagram that some perspective was needed.

"The pressure we all put on individuals in the sports are enormous, so let's give the same amount of support back," he wrote under a picture of Shiffrin sitting on the side of the course.

"It's all about the balance and we are just normal human beings!"

The issue is that balance can be warped when it comes to those expectations.

It's impossible not to be reminded of Simone Biles, whose bravery in speaking up about the pressure she was feeling at the Tokyo Games barely six months ago began a discussion about what we should expect from our athletes at the highest level.

Nobody could dare put themselves in Shiffrin's ski boots, because few people in history have ever proven themselves fit to tighten them, let alone wear them.

Yet her comments after Wednesday's events are concerning in that they are a mix of rationalising her own disappointment and worrying about the disappointment of others.

"It's a let-down of everything, letting down myself, letting down other people," she said.

"We are not done yet but [giant slalom] and slalom, those were my biggest focuses. It really feels like a lot of work for nothing.

"They will try to say, 'This happens, and it's OK, and don't be too hard on yourself.' But it is a lot of work for a grand total of five gates in the [giant slalom] and five gates in the slalom. That's not lost on me.

"If the worst thing that happens is this, I mean I didn't finish in the Olympics, come on. That hurts, but in 24 hours nobody is going to care.

"Well, maybe it will take a little longer."

Shiffrin has, in theory, three more events to compete in at these Games, including the combined, where she leads the World Cup standings and was favourite to medal.

However, if she were to decide that she is not in the right headspace, we should hope she has the courage and support to make whatever decision regarding her participation is right for her.