Mikaela Shiffrin Has A Message For ‘The People Who Have So Much Apparent Hate’

Beijing has turned Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic dreams into the stuff of Olympic nightmares.

The decorated alpine skier crashed Thursday in the alpine combined event ― her third crash in five events at the Games ― ensuring she won’t take home an individual medal this year.

“There’s going to be a whole chaotic mess of crap that people are saying about how I just fantastically failed these last couple of weeks in the moments that actually counted,” she reflected afterward.

“It’s really strange, but I’m not even afraid of that right now, and maybe it’s because I don’t have any emotional energy to give any more.”

Shiffrin addressed that “chaotic mess of crap” head-on later Thursday.

In a series of tweets, the skier first shared a small sample of the vitriolic messages she’s apparently received, including: “Finally got what you deserved”; “Dumb bitch cant [sic] even do the one thing she is supposed to do right”; and “didn’t get all the medals and now she’s going insane.”

Well kids… feed ’em what you wanna feed em. Self pity, sadness… let the turkeys get you down. There will always be turkeys. Or get up, again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Again. Get up because you can, because you like what you do when it’s not infested with the people who have so much apparent hate for you. Just get up. It’s not always easy, but it’s also not the end of the world to fail. Fail twice. Fail 5 times. At the Olympics. (Enter me…)

Why do I keep coming back? Gosh knows it huts more than it feels good lately. I come back because those first 9 turns today were spectacular, really heaven. That’s where I’m meant to be and I’m stubborn as s**t. So let’s go for some team event training tomorrow, and then the final alpine race of the Olympics on Saturday.

Shiffrin closed with a message of support for her teammates ― and one last shot at the haters:

“Look out for @PaulaMoltzan @TommyFord River, @AJHurti, @LukedWinters and myself… (or if you are playing the side of hater today, ignore me but definitely look out for them!)”

Shiffrin and her teammates will compete in the mixed team event on Feb. 19 (airing Friday night in the U.S.).