CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin is well-versed in the bargain the Olympics forces athletes to make.The risk that comes with laying yourself bare on the world stage. The way it challenges your mental and physical health. The ever-present fear of failure and the way it can frame — fairly or unfairly — the public’s perception of you.“It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do,” she said.No, it’s not.Trying to nudge that bargain toward friendlier terms is next to impossible. The greatest ski racer in the history of the sport has spent years wrangling with it. On Wednesday, Shiffrin may have finally found peace.Standing on the medal stand, a second gold medal in slalom around her neck a dozen years after she earned her first, Shiffrin closed her eyes, mouthed the lyrics to “The Star Spangled Banner” and breathed in a moment built on tireless practice, innate talent, purity of purpose and a self-belief that is harder to come by than you might think.The peace she felt didn’t come from shedding the weight of getting “ripped apart by people who sit on the couch,” as teammate Paula Moltzan put it.No, Shiffrin returned to the top of the Olympic medal stand for the first time in eight years by leaning into what drew her to bunny slopes in New England as a kid in the first place: the challenge of bending gravity and her body to her will as she navigates from here to there while darting between gates as fast as she can.She did not come to the Dolomite Mountains to win, which is merely a byproduct. If she’s being hone …
