Mikaela Shiffrin smiled in disbelief, bravely waved at the audience and made every effort to make a good face for the bad game.
When she first reached for gold at the World Championships in France, the undisputed skiing queen immediately awoke memories of the drama in Beijing a year ago, when she had flown home from the Olympics without a medal: already clearly on course for gold, the defending champion in alpine combined scored three goals before the goal
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“I’m disappointed, but still satisfied with my race,” said Shiffrin, who was 0.96 seconds behind Brignone following the Super-G Eurosport. “I knew my only chance for gold was to take a risk and push really hard. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out.”
Eurosport analysis: This is how Shiffrin lost the combination medal
Shiffrin fends off Olympic question
She immediately rejected a question regarding the Olympics on “ZDF”. “Oh no,” said Shiffrin, who wants to start in Méribel in Super-G, giant slalom (February 16) and slalom (February 18).
After the Super-G in the morning and a slalom run in the followingnoon, Wendy Holdener (Switzerland/+1.62 seconds), world champion from 2017 and 2019, and Ricarda Haaser (Austria/+2.62) drove to Brignone on the podium.
“Did you see her slalom?” Shiffrin said appreciatively of the winner: “After the Super-G I wasn’t sure if I was the backlog (0.96 seconds, editor’s note) can even catch up because she’s an incredible athlete.”
Brignone survives a moment of shock in combined slalom
Shiffrin will transition to doom
However, gold would have been possible until her end. Shortly before her fall, the American was 88 hundredths of a second ahead of Brignone in the slalom – only 0.08 seconds were missing. When Shiffrin crossed the red finish line following her mistake, the green “1” lit up in front of her name, but Brignone knew: Gold is mine now.
“During the inspection I saw that it was uneven there and that I had to be careful. I missed it by a goal and then I didn’t have a chance anymore,” explained Shiffrin on “ORF”: “I felt myself felt good, it would have turned out to be a good time.”
Combination highlights: Brignone furios – Shiffrin throws away gold
She wanted to “ski actively” in the last flat section, but then “‘lost’ the ski.” You just had to “take all the risks” to beat Brignone. “I’m happy with my aggressiveness. If you want to win gold, you have to drive like this,” she said.
The failed title defender immediately headed for the Olympic third place, following a short small talk the old world champion congratulated the new one with a “fist bump”. “I’m happy and grateful, I was missing a gold medal in my career,” said Brignone.
Shiffrin throws the combination medal away just before the goal
Shiffrin-Aus recalls Olympic drama
At the Olympics, Shiffrin was eliminated in the first run of the giant slalom following seven goals. Then came real drama.
In her head, Shiffrin said following her arrival in Méribel, those sad days are “still a bit” in there, so she is “prepared to “do my best – and still not win a medal”.
That is possible, she might be eliminated in any race. “But”, don’t worry, “I don’t expect it.” Things went wrong in the first race, but Shiffrin was much more stable than in Beijing.
(with SID)
Shiffrin exclusively: “It was tough – but I survived”
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