CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 18 : U.S. great Mikaela Shiffrin won women’s slalom gold and her first Olympic medal since 2018 in the final Alpine ski race of the Milano Cortina Games on Wednesday.
Switzerland’s Camille Rast took silver and Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson the bronze.
The most successful World Cup skier of all time dominated the first run and did not hold back in the second either as she beat Rast by a combined 1.5 seconds.
Shiffrin was the overwhelming favourite after winning seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season but the lack of medals after two events, along with a blank in Beijing four years ago, had ramped up the pressure.
The 2014 Olympic slalom champion made clear it was back to business right from the outset, leading by 0.82 after the first run.
Germany’s Lena Duerr was the sole skier to come within a second of her time in that run but her hopes evaporated in a split second on the decisive leg after she straddled the first gate out of the hut.
Sweden’s Cornelia Oehlund had been third after the first run, albeit a second off the pace, but she too was unable to convert that into a medal after breaking a ski pole and failing to finish.
