To hear Mikaela Shiffrin tell it, she still took away something valuable from the 2022 Winter Olympics even though it wasn't a medal.
It was, she said, the experience of skiing with some of her U.S. teammates in her final event of the games, the mixed team parallel.
"It's the most special feeling, the most positive and optimistic feeling that I've had for this whole time that we've been here," she told reporters, per The Associated Press.
Shiffrin split four head-to-head slalom races Sunday against skiers from Slovakia (win), Italy (loss), Germany (loss) and Norway (win). The American team finished fourth in the wind-delayed competition, losing on a tiebreaker to the Norwegians in the bronze-medal race.
BEIJING OLYMPICS: Final medal count for Team USA
That left Shiffrin without a medal in six tries in Beijing. She skied out (crashed and/or missed gates) in three of those races.
"I have had a lot of disappointing moments at these Games; today is not one of them," she said. "Today is my favorite memory."
Shiffrin — a three-time Olympic medalist (two gold) coming into Beijing — never hid from questions about her 2022 performance and never tried to conceal her disappointment. On Sunday, standing at the NBC again, she looked for positives as she played the role of team spokesperson.
"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," she said with her teammates at her side. "I get that people will say we came up short, but the thing is that, to have the depth on our team, coming from the U.S., competing in a European-dominated sport, coming here and having all of us with these guys skiing so strongly . . .
"River, I mean, we were watching you at the bottom there and the fact that you were skiing so strongly even gave us hope, that's the biggest win you could ever give us."
Shiffrin was addressing U.S. men's skier River Radamus, who won his run to tie the race 2-2. Norway held the tiebreaker — combined time of its fastest man and woman — by 0.42 seconds. Paula Moltzan, not Shiffrin, was the Americans' fastest woman.
"My teammates are what carried me through this Olympics."@MikaelaShiffrin on the strength and perseverance of the @usskiteam.#WinterOlympics | #WatchWithUS pic.twitter.com/UiDhZ6nC4G
— NBC Olympics (@NBCOlympics) February 20, 2022
Shiffrin can take any positive energy from Beijing back to Europe for the resumption of her World Cup season next weekend. She leads the women's overall standings.