It was a disappointment for the 26-year-oldbut the real shame here isnt thatShiffrinwas disqualified.
Plus there are the usual mounds of public pressure and performance anxiety that Olympic athletes face.
Its still pretty painful to think about, Shiffrin told theAssociated Pressin January.
Tom Pennington/Getty Images
I imagine theres going to be some really, really difficult moments, Shiffrin told AP.
With this, the hard moments hit whenever they want.
Its not when you choose to be sad or excited.
Many Olympics fans drew parallels between the Shiffrin coverage and what unfolded in Tokyo this summer with Simone Biles.
Lets kindly not forget the amount of pressure/expectations we put on Simone Biles when discussing Mikaela Shiffrin.
Me watching Mikaela Shiffrin after that run: I hope that girl isn’t too hard on herself.
The Announcers: What a mistake.
This will live in infamy for the rest of time.
We have literally not moved the needle on mental health at all,tweeteda third.
Give her space to process.
Do better, one personwrote.
Hey NBC maybe dont continually air a closeup of Mikaela Shiffrin crying??
Just a thought,wroteanother.
Much of the media coverage of Shiffrin is dispiriting, to say the least.
Athletes like Biles,Alexi Pappas, andNaomi Osakahave helped us make tremendous strides in recent years.
Thank you for respecting her/their space right now, the spokesperson said in a text.
But the truth is that this collective concern for the mental health of elite athletes is still relatively new.
NBCs assertive defense of its coverage demonstrated just how deeply ingrained the old norms are in these institutions.
Were watching real people with real emotions in real time and we did everything we were supposed to do.
Solomon also argued that the blowback showed a double standard in coverage of womens sports.
She told the AP, Womens sports should be analyzed through the same lens as the men.
The most famous skier in the world did not finish her two best events.
So we are going to show her sitting on the hill and analyze what went wrong.
You bet we are.
The issue is not whether female athletes deserve special treatment.
The issue is the very lens Solomon is talking aboutthe one through which we cover all athletes.
And if so, then we need to seriously reevaluate how we treat our male athletes too.
And it underscores how much work we have left to do.
Progress may be halting, and the change may not be as fast or linear as athletes deserve.
