Slalom queen

Women’s Slalom: The first run is now LIVE

Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin(Bild: Sepp Pail)

Mikaela Shiffrin is now a triple Olympic champion! The American won the second slalom gold medal of her career in Cortina on Wednesday. She won with a 1.50-second lead over Switzerland's Camille Rast. Bronze went to Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson, who finished 1.71 seconds behind. Katharina Truppe (+2.00) and Katharina Huber (+2.08) were the best of the four Austrian women, finishing fifth and sixth respectively. 

Huber and Truppe were ninth and tenth after the first run, but the gap to the medal places was ultimately too big after two runs that were not without mistakes. "It's a shame, of course, but we really can't blame ourselves," said Truppe, also speaking for her friend. "I think the gap in the first run was just a bit too big because it was so close." In the second run, she didn't take the hairpin turn very well. "I think fifth and sixth place hurt a little, but that's just the way it is."

Katharina Truppe(Bild: APA/HANS KLAUS TECHT)

  Huber agreed with Truppe, saying she "left it behind in the first ten gates in the first run." The Lower Austrian completed a tricky passage in the first run, set by ÖSV technical coach Klaus Mayrhofer, with the fastest sector time. "I'm skiing it quite well in training." Overall, however, she has mixed feelings after winning gold in the team combined and now finishing sixth. "I can see that I'm not far off. I wasn't that far off today. But I'm still going home happy because I wasn't that far off."

Katharina Huber(Bild: AFP/MARCO BERTORELLO)

Shiffrin strikes after eight races
Shiffrin had failed to win a medal in her eight previous Olympic races, but the record-breaking World Cup winner has now overcome a certain trauma. She won her first slalom gold medal at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. Four years later, she became Olympic champion in the giant slalom in Pyeongchang and also won silver in the combined event in 2018. In Milan/Cortina, she had previously only managed fourth place in the team combined event from the leading position, and Shiffrin had finished eleventh in the giant slalom.

(Bild: Sepp Pail)

Huber took her hat off to Shiffrin's performance, saying, "I have the utmost respect for her. I wasn't sure how she would handle the pressure because she probably put a lot of pressure on herself. She was under particular pressure in the combined event. She is a deserving winner with seven out of eight season victories, so she deserves to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games." The other two Austrians, Katharina Gallhuber (+3.76) and Lisa Hörhager (+4.85), finished in 22nd and 25th place.

The red-white-red women's ski team finished these Games with gold medals for Huber and Ariane Rädler in the team combined and bronze for Cornelia Hütter in the super-G, after failing to win a slalom medal for the first time since 2002. 

The slalom results:

The men won silver through Vincent Kriechmayr and Manuel Feller in the team combined and through Fabio Gstrein in the slalom. That makes a total of one gold and one bronze medal, as well as two silver medals.