US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin has not got much experience of failure.

That's why her twin DNFs earlier in the Olympics in the slalom and giant slalom were such shocks.

Shiffrin was coming into these Games as a genuine medal chance in at least three events – the technical events she has dominated in recent years on her way to 73 World Cup titles, the third most ever.

Instead, she crashed out in all three.

Arguably the best active alpine skier in the world, Shiffrin's torrid Games continued when she crashed out of the slalom leg of the combined event on Thursday, her third DNF of the Olympics.

Incredibly, the 26-year-old has now crashed out of two slaloms in the space of a week.

Shiffrin said afterwards that "60 per cent" of her career DNFs had happened at this Olympic Games.

Her maths isn't quite right. According to snow sports' international governing body FIS, Shiffrin has had six DNFs in giant slalom over the past eight years, as well as the three slalom races she has crashed out of in that time.

But it's still an incredible blip in her stellar record.

"I didn't feel pressure there," Shiffrin told the Olympic Information Service after the race.

"I mean, there's always pressure but … I just felt loose and relaxed. I knew my plan — focused, good skiing — and I was doing it and it still didn't work."

What's more remarkable is that Shiffrin appeared to be in a good place after the disappointment of last week, two DNFs that she described as a "failure" and was at a complete loss to explain.

She finished ninth in the Super-G and 18th in the downhill earlier this week, but then stormed to a fifth-place finish in this morning's speed element of the combined — an event that combines the two times a skier achieves in the downhill and then the slalom, which Shiffrin is the overall World Cup leader in.

"Yesterday I finally felt I could really trust my instincts in the track," Shiffrin said, having previously said she had started to doubt everything about her ability after her two DNFs.

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"I finally started to feel that the right way yesterday [in practice].

"Today, I was just trying to stay calm and not think about the course too much and not try to make too much of a strategy but just ski it.

She did, however, reveal some nerves about going back to the slalom this afternoon.

"It's nice to know I have some practice and certainly a lot of speed in slalom but I also have a little bit of, I don't know, I have to overcome the image that I am going to ski out on the fifth gate.

"I am just trying to stay calm because I think I was doing pretty well with that this morning, stay calm and have a good run at slalom.

"I am really excited to have another chance at racing on the rest of the tech track. That's going to be nice."

In the end, it was not very nice at all.

"I actually had a really good start and got into my tempo, my rhythm, quite well," Shiffrin said of her run.

"It was always good, fast skiing but I never had an issue not finishing and especially not that early.

Switzerland's Michelle Gisin claimed the gold medal, retaining the title she won in PyeongChang.

Ever the woman for the big occasion, Gisin, 28, can now call herself a two-time Olympic gold medallist but she has only claimed one World Cup victory from 183 starts.

She beat compatriot Wendy Holdener into silver, with Italy's Federica Brignone winning bronze.

Australia's Greta Small finished 13th, in a total of two minutes 34.55, just under nine seconds behind the gold medallist.