The Associated Press Mikaela Shiffrin reacts as she looks back to see her disappointing time as Germany’s Emma Aicher (background left) and Kira Weidle Winkelmann celebrate winning the silver medal in the women’s team combined race.

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin didn’t offer any excuses. No sense of anger, frustration or tears for that matter, either.

The most decorated slalom racer in history could tell the snow under her skis didn’t feel right to her as she made her way down the Tofane course in the first Olympic women’s team combined event on Tuesday.

Something about the feedback she was getting seemed … off.

By the time Shiffrin crossed the finish line, the slim lead Breezy Johnson handed her after a brilliant and gutsy downhill was gone. So was a shot at the gold, which went to the Austrian team of Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber.

Silver and bronze disappeared, too, with fellow Team USA members Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan holding off their two friends for third to earn the first Olympic medals of their lengthy careers.

Shiffrin’s been doing this a long time. She knows these things happen. Yet for Shiffrin, they have typically come in training. The only time they seem to pop up in competition is at the Olympics.

Four years removed from a forgettable two weeks in Beijing when she went 0 for 6 and failed to even reach the finish line three times, Shiffrin’s fourth Olympics began with a run that started slow and never came together. She lost time at every checkpoint, sending her and Johnson sliding down to fourth.

How sluggish was Shiffrin? Her time of 45.38 was 15th fastest out of the 18 skiers who reached the bottom. For comparison, Shiffrin hadn’t finished that low in an individual slalom she finished since 2012, when she still was a teenager and her rise to three Olympic medals and a record 108 World Cup titles (and counting) was still beyond her wildest dreams.

“There’s something to learn today,” Shiffrin said. “I’m going to learn it.”

It wasn’t a confidence issue. Shiffrin took the chair lift up to the top of the course inspired by Johnson, who backed up a gold-medal performance in the women’s downhill on Sunday by storming her way to the front to give Shiffrin a slim lead of .06 seconds heading into the slalom.

Shiffrin, who knows a thing or two about attention, marveled at Johnson’s ability to focus given the whirlwind that comes when you break through at the Olympics. She leaned forward at the start intent on giving Johnson her second gold in 48 hours.

Down at the finish, Wiles and Moltzan sat in third torn between rooting for their teammates and dreading having a medal snatched away by the best to ever do it.

“We were asking for a miracle,” Wiles said.

They got one. Shiffrin stood in the finish area after her time was posted and was immediately embraced by Johnson. Hugs with Moltzan and Wiles — well aware of the bullet they dodged — soon followed.

“I think if you let Mikaela go run that course (again), I think she’d come down at least a second (faster),” Moltzan said.