No excuses for Shiffrin after Olympic team combined flop
The US ski star was set up for a serious tilt at combined gold by a table-topping downhill time from her partner Breezy Johnson.
But the most successful skier of all time -- with a record 108 World Cup victories to her name -- could only manage the 15th fastest time in the afternoon's slalom.
Her run was a full second slower than the fastest, that of Germany's silver medallist Emma Aicher, and left her and Johnson fourth, outside the medal places.
"I'm careful not to make excuses but it comes from a lot of different variables," Shiffrin told reporters after the race won by the unfancied second-ranked Austrian pair of Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber.
"It is a sport of fine margins and a lot of variables. This kind of thing happens more often than not in training where it's like I don't quite feel comfortable enough and there's a certain amount of luck when it goes right.
"But there's also a feeling that I'm going to work to achieve for the slalom race coming up."
Shiffrin came into the Milan-Cortina Games heavy favourite not just for the team combined but also for the slalom, the last event on the alpine skiing schedule next week.
Her form in the World Cup this season, with seven wins from eight slalom races, suggested that she was set to banish memories of the last Winter Olympics in Beijing where she failed to win a single medal.
But Shiffrin, who previously won two Olympic golds (2014 slalom, 2018 giant slalom) and a silver (2018 combined), said that she wasn't comfortable in the warm conditions which provided a much softer piste than for the downhill leg of the event on Tuesday morning.
"It's the first time that we've seen any conditions like that this season and I didn't adjust to it, not yet, but that was a great opportunity to learn," she said.
"What I wish is that Breezy could walk away with the medal."
Shiffrin's stuttering descent allowed her compatriots Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan to claim bronze just as it looked like they would drop down to fourth.
Wiles finished fourth in the downhill final on Sunday and was fourth fastest again on Tuesday, as was Moltzan in the slalom run.
"This sport is incredible, there are a lot of emotions on both sides when you have good days and bad days," said Wiles.
"I was lucky, Paula said some really nice words to pick me up (on Sunday), everyone was super supportive."