Cortina d’Ampezzo (Italy) (AFP) – Mikaela Shiffrin suffered more Winter Olympic pain on Tuesday after the US ski star failed to claim a medal in the women’s team combined, bringing back memories of her disastrous performance at the Beijing Games four years ago. America’s top team were firm favourites to win gold after Breezy Johnson topped the times in the morning’s downhill run, but Shiffrin stuttered through her slalom and the pair finished out of the medals, in fourth. Shiffrin’s unusually underpowered display in a discipline she has dominated for years allowed Austria’s second-ranked duo of Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber to claim gold.
“I didn’t quite find a comfort level that like allows me to produce full speed, so I’m going to have to learn what to do, what to adjust in the short time we have before the other tech races,” Shiffrin told reporters. She added: “There’s something to learn from this day, and I’m going to learn it.” Johnson and Shiffrin, already world champions in the discipline, had a slender lead of 0.06sec over Austria 2’s downhill specialist Raedler. Shiffrin’s World Cup form had been so good that the prospect of any other winners seemed impossible, but she was only 15th fastest down the slope in Cortina d’Ampezzo, her flop costing new downhill champion Johnson a second gold medal in northern Italy.
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“We already celebrated the medal and when it was silver, it was more than OK,” said Huber. “Now it’s gold and it’s unbelievable.” Shiffrin left Beijing without a single Olympic medal four years ago — failing to finish three of six races — and her disappointing display in her favoured discipline came in complete contrast to her form throughout this season.
The 30-year-old, who previously won Olympic golds in slalom (2014) and giant slalom (2018) and a combined silver in Pyeongchang, has won a record 108 races on the World Cup circuit, including seven of this season’s eight slalom races. But she was a full second slower than Emma Aicher whose session-leading time of 44.38sec gave Germany silver, with Kira Weidle-Winkelmann having raced the downhill. An American pairing did claim a medal, but it was the USA 2 pairing of Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan, who took bronze, the latter almost half a second faster than Shiffrin in the slalom run.
There will now be huge pressure on Shiffrin for next week’s slalom, the final women’s alpine skiing event at this year’s Olympics. Petra Vlhova, Shiffrin’s main rival for slalom honours before suffering a knee ligament injury, made her return to competition after two years away but failed to finish her run.
There was also disappointment for Italy as only one of the host nation’s four teams managed to complete the race. Sofia Goggia, the downhill bronze medallist, lost control of her skis and skidded off the piste in the morning, thankfully keeping enough control to not smash into the netting. And Laura Pirovano’s impressive downhill run, the Italian finishing 0.27sec behind Johnson, was for nothing as Martina Peterlini was one of eight athletes to fail to complete the slalom.
The team combined made a successful Olympic debut at this year’s Games, with Switzerland’s Franjo von Allmen and Tanguy Nef winning the men’s event on Monday. It comprises two racers from the same nation racing a downhill and a slalom, with the fastest aggregate time earning the gold medal. Countries are allowed to enter multiple teams in the event, with women’s skiing powerhouses the USA, Switzerland, Italy, and Austria each having four pairings entered on Tuesday.
© 2024 AFP
