- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Family affair as LeBron, Bronny James make Lakers bow
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
- In France's Marseille, teen 'stabbed 50 times' then burned alive
Shiffrin admits no Beijing medal would be 'disappointing'
US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin has admitted she would be disappointed to leave the Beijing Olympics without a medal, but has warned it is impossible to have two "perfect weeks" at a Games.
Shiffrin is one of the headline acts at Beijing 2022, hunting a third gold after triumphing in slalom at the 2014 Sochi Games and giant slalom four years later in Pyeongchang.
Aged just 26, the four-time world slalom champion and three-time World Cup overall winner has progressed from a pure technical skier to a true all-rounder.
She is the sole skier, male or female, to have won in all six International Ski Federation (FIS) disciplines, having stepped up from slalom and giant slalom to also claim World Cup wins in both the super-G -- four times -- and downhill (two) as well as parallel slalom and alpine combined.
Needless to say, expectations are sky high, with Shiffrin set to enter at least three events at the Olympics.
"There is going to be some level of disappointment if I walk away with no medal," she said.
"I don’t think it's possible to walk away without any level of disappointment. I don't think you can truly say: 'I'm not disappointed about how something went'.
"I've never in my life had three weeks where I had no regrets and no disappointment so it definitely can't be expected at the Olympics… It's just a fact of life!"
She conceded that medal expectations were understandable, but the Olympics involved "a lot of moving pieces".
"There are a lot of factors that are not really under your control. Most of it is actually out of your control, not even the way you experience a normal World Cup race," she said.
"At the Olympics, it’s impossible to have the perfect two weeks."
- Public scrutiny 'challenging' -
Shiffrin acknowledged that public scrutiny was part and parcel of competitive but said it could be "very challenging".
"That wasn't necessarily something that I've signed up for. You don't necessarily expect the level of that and how awful it is to feel like you have disappointed a nation of people that you don't know, you've never met and you’ll probably never will."
Turning to what promises to be a packed schedule, Shiffrin said it was a "little bit wait-and-see".
"The biggest event in question would be the downhill," for which training runs will be "a mini-qualifier (for the US team) because we have more than four women here who can race the downhill and be fast".
“That’s very exciting and I do not feel like I need to take that spot if we have fully capable athletes filling those spots who are faster than I am.
"So we’re going to see in the training runs where we stack up and what my potential truly is on that track and go from there.
"It's very nearly a game-time decision."
Shiffrin said she was happy the men had gone first on the speed venue at the man-made pistes of the Chinese National Alpine Skiing Centre in Yanqing -- the men's downhill takes place on Sunday.
"It’s a really nice slope for speed, some really nice, cool rolling terrain, everything is really smooth," she said.
"Trying to get used to a new venue, maybe more for speed than anything else, can be a little bit tricky, because you’ve never run it before, but luckily for the women the men are going first!"
D.Kaufman--AMWN