Shiffrin golden in Alpine Combined

Mikaela Shiffrin was in a league of her own in today’s Alpine Combined at the FIS World Ski Championships in Cortina. The American earned her second medal at these World Championships and the ninth in her career with a dominant victory.

After Shiffrin sat in third place after the super-G it was clear that any other racer would have to have the slalom of their lives to take the gold medal away from Shiffrin. And it was clear that it would be virtually impossible as an icy course and tricky set at the top left only the slalom experts able to vie for the medals.

In the end, it was three familiar tech faces taking home the hardware as Shiffrin topped Petra Vlhova by an impressive 0.86 seconds. Third place went to Michelle Gisin 0.89 off the winning pace.

After winning three medals at the 2019 World Championships in Are (SWE), including the same silver medal in the combined, Vlhova was happy to get on the podium today. “It’s a good way to kick off the tech week and always a relief to earn the first medal. The difference today was my super-G, which put me in a good position for the slalom run.”

Shiffrin also earned three medals at the last edition of the World Championship, and with two under her belt already here, she is on pace to beat that mark.

“The conditions were perfect today, it was really fun to ski. I was also happy to get another run on this super-G course.” said Shiffrin. “The slalom was a hard icy slope, not everyone had the best time with the conditions, but I just did what I could to keep building my speed despite slipping a little.”

In total, 14 racers were DNFs in the slalom run. Those that tried to attack the course, fell victim to the course set at the top. Those that played it safe were well off the pace of the slalom aces. Following the top three, there was a massive gap in the time with fourth-place finisher Elena Curtoni ending a hefty 2.35 seconds behind Shiffrin.

Adding to the challenge was the fact that today’s race was staged for the first time on newly renovated Druscie course, a new slope for both the men and women. The course hosted the slalom of the 1956 Olympics and after that fell out of rotation until these World Championships brought it back to life.

Tomorrow will be another full day of action with both the men and women taking to the slope for a second consecutive day, this time for the World Championship debut of the parallel race.  Qualifications start at 9:00 with the main show at 14:00.