Mikaela Shiffrin will be going home from Beijing without a medal.
Shiffrin, Tommy Ford, Paula Moltzan and River Radamus lost to reigning bronze medalist Norway in the bronze medal matchup of the mixed team parallel event on Saturday night.
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The two teams split the four head-to-head matchups but Norway won the tiebreaker, which is the combination of the best male and female times.
Moltzan gave the United States an early lead in the small final by beating Maria Therese Tviberg. However, Norway responded with two straight victories, as Fabian Wilkens Solheim defeated Ford and Thea Louise Stjernesund took down Shiffrin.
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In the fourth and final matchup, Radamus secured the needed victory after Timon Haugan crashed out, but he didn't do so in a fast enough time. The combination of Solheim and Stjernesund's times (48.34) was better than the combined time of Moltzan and Radamus (48.76) by 0.42 seconds, giving Norway the tiebreaker.
"I don't think you can emphasize it enough how unbelievable it is for us to be here and be in the hunt for a medal," Shiffrin said in an interview alongside her teammates. "I get that people will say we came up short.
"River, the fact that you were skiing so strongly that you even gave us hope, that's the biggest win you could ever give us."
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The United States got off to a strong start in the event, taking down Slovakia 3-1 in the 1/8 finals and Italy 3-1 in the quarterfinals. Shiffrin won her first race against Slovakia's Rebeka Jancova before just barely losing Italy's Marta Bassino, who crossed the finish line 0.02 seconds ahead of Shiffrin.
The U.S. and Germany split the first two matchups in the semifinals, as Shiffrin lost another close race to Lena Duerr and Radamus beat Linus Strasser. But the turning point came in the third race.
Moltzan looked well on her way to giving the United States a 2-1 advantage before crashing out late in the run. Germany's Emma Aicher also skied out seconds later, but Germany was awarded the point for making it further down the course. Then, Alexander Schmid secured the semifinal victory for the Germans by defeating Ford.
Germany went on to lose to Austria via tiebreaker in the final.
The mixed team event brings an end to a disappointing Olympics for Shiffrin. The three-time medalist failed to medal in all five individual alpine skiing events at the 2022 Games. She skied out of three competitions, while placing ninth and 18th in the two others.
While she came up short of the podium for a sixth time in Beijing, Shiffrin called the mixed team event her favorite memory of the Games.
"It's just been incredible to compete today with you guys," Shiffrin told her teammates. "After a long Olympics, this is my absolute favorite memory and I just want to thank you for that."
