A Slip and a Slow Start Cost Two Stars Alpine Gold

Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States after crashing in the giant slalom on Monday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesYANQING, China — Every Olympics delivers its own crushing surprises: the ill-timed injury, a star figure skater’s tumble to the ice, a mental mistake.

On Monday, under bright sunny skies and on one of the most hectic days in Olympic Alpine ski racing history, it was the American star Mikaela Shiffrin’s turn to experience that sort of heartbreak.

Shiffrin’s failure to survive a left turn early in her Beijing debut in the giant slalom, leading to her disqualification from the event, did not have the drama of her sport’s violent crashes. But it was also not unusual on a day…