YANQING, China — Alpine skiing is perhaps the most whimsical Olympic sport. Wind lurks at every turn, threatening to decide races. GOATs can fail in any instant. So it would be easy, in the aftermath of U.S. Alpine’s worst Games in 34 years, to blame randomness.
To blame Breezy Johnson’s injury, or other crashes that hampered contenders.
But randomness alone doesn’t explain why a once-dominant program sputtered to a single medal (a silver) at these Olympics. It doesn’t explain why six of the 10 individual races here finished without an American in the top 10, or why eight finished without an American in the top six, or why mixed parallel slalom team finished off the podium.