This has been a very disappointing start for the 2 of the 3 dominant US stars in WC Skiing. Harald has pointed out on his blog and on facebook that Mikeala's boot set up is wrong and is causing all kinds of issues for her. Add to that the fact that some jerk coach of hers has convinced to start training Super G and she is now stivoting in slalom, and this is never good. I will say that the second run at Are looked much better but she was so far back after her first run that she had no shot to podium.
With Ted it's hard to say. It could be that Marcel has finally caught up and surpassed him. I haven't see today's GS at Alta Badia but Hirscher beat Ted by 1.45 seconds, reminiscent of the beating Ted used to put on Hirscher and the rest of the field. Ted did shatter his hand into some pieces and is skiing with screws and plates while it heals. These guys are super human but mere mortals would be quite affected by this. Hard to tell how much this is impacting his skiing and or his training time.
We can say that Lindsey Vonn is ahead of where most (including herself) expected her to be at this point with two wins and a podium in the few races she has participated in this season. She skied out today and fell but she is OK.
Ted is 30 and maybe his time as worlds best GS skier is over. It was a great run and he ranks as the second greatest GS skier ever with 23 WC wins in GS (with surely a few more still to come). But Shiffy should still be dominating and seeing her ski poorly is very disappointing!