After a couple of disappointing races, Mikaela Shiffrin was down to one event on Wednesday in her bid to end her poor Olympic stretch. Luckily for her, it was her best event, the slalom, in which she has won nine World Cup titles, four world championships and an Olympic gold medal in 2014.
And sure enough, Shiffrin delivered to win the gold medal. Starting seventh on the first run, Shiffrin had a quick hesitation early on, but righted herself and put up the best time on a short, flattish course by a big margin of eight-tenths of a second. That lead held up through a crowded field of 95 skiers.
“I had a little bit of butterflies to be sure, but I felt prepared to take on the nervousness,” she told NBC after the run.
The gold medal was hers for the taking on the second run and she grabbed it, clocking the second fastest time to easily win gold by a wide margin over Camille Rast of Switzerland.
Along with her 2014 slalom gold medal, Shiffrin won a giant slalom gold in 2018 but did not medal in any event in 2022 despite being a heavy favorite. At these Games she had surrendered a lead in the team combined to finish fourth and was just 11th in the giant slalom. This despite leading the overall World Cup this season and winning more World Cup races in her career than any Alpine skier ever.
But she emphatically ended her history of hard luck at the Olympics on Wednesday.
Victor Mather, who has been a reporter and editor at The Times for 25 years, covers sports and breaking news.
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