Austrian Marcel Hirscher Disqualified From Men’s Slalom in Bid for Third Gold Medal of 2018

A stunning upset during the men’s slalom.

Austrian skier Marcel Hirscher’s bid for a third gold medal in PyeongChang ended in shocking fashion during the men’s slalom. 

Hirscher, who won gold in the combined and giant slalom earlier in these games, missed a gate on his first run of Thursday’s slalom race, eliminating him from the competition. 

The 2014 slalom silver medalist hadn’t skied off course in a slalom race in two years. He is one of the best technical skiers in the world, the defending world champion in slalom and giant slalom with 52 total world cup wins in both events. 

Hirscher isn’t the only slalom favorite to fail to medal at PyeongChang. American Mikaela Shiffrin, the defending gold medalist and a slalom specialist, finished fourth in the event last week.

The slalom was Hirscher’s final event of this year’s Olympics—he is not scheduled to compete in Saturday’s team event.