Méribel, France—American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in the women’s giant slalom at the World Championships on Thursday, a day after her unexpected breakup with longtime coach Mike Day.
Shiffrin overcame a mistake late in the race to maintain his first-run lead. When she found her own time, she covered her mouth with her hands and fell on the snow in her joy, relief and celebration.
She stayed there for a while, breathing heavily from the intensity of the run.
Italian skier Federica Brignone, who took silver just 0.12 seconds behind, and Norwegian Ragnild Mowinkel, who took bronze by 0.22 seconds, came to congratulate her.
“I’m getting really emotional right now,” Shiffrin said. “Unbelievable, 1 in 1200, really small difference. At the bottom, I was just blind and skiing faster. I don’t know what to do, just do it.”
World Championship races do not count towards the World Cup circuit. Shiffrin has 11 wins this season, bringing his overall tally to 85. She broke her former teammate Lindsay Vonn’s women’s record of 82 last month and moved within her one overall. A mark set by Swedish greats Ingemar Stenmark in the 1970s and his 80s.
Shiffrin’s victory at the World Championship came a day after Day, her head coach since 2016, left the team midway through the event. I was letting him know that
French skier Tessa Worley, who had been second from the start, slipped on her inside ski on her second run and fell.
“I felt skiing wasn’t relaxing enough,” Wally said. “I didn’t want to go get a medal, I wanted to go win.”
Wally, a two-time giant slalom world champion, felt the pressure of skiing in front of his home crowd.
2018 Olympic champion and five of the last six giant slalom winners on the World Cup circuit said Shiffrin, “It’s not an easy position. It’s a favorite of the home crowd… I mean, cheer me on anyway.” Thank you for doing that,” he said. .
Brignone, who won gold in the combined event that opened worlds last week, has recovered from an illness in recent days.
“I am very proud. I am very happy. I managed to do it,” said the Italian. “Today I was completely free to think about skiing and put everything away.”
After failing to medal in six starts at last year’s Beijing Olympics, her first major event appearance came after winning the overall title in Italy in 2021 with her first gold medal at the World Championships. bottom.
This brings her to a total of 7 world titles and 13 medals from 16 career world championship races. She is second only to German skier Christol Kranz on the list of the most individual medals won by a woman in the world, with whom she won 15 in the 1930s.
The win made Shiffrin the fourth female skier to win world titles in four different disciplines, after winning four gold in slalom, one in Super-G and a total gold two years earlier. .
Shiffrin didn’t finish her opening event at last week’s World Championships when she straddled the gate in the slalom portion of the combined.
Shiffrin’s final race at the World Championships is Saturday’s slalom.
Nina O’Brien recorded the second fastest time on the final run, moving up from 21st to 11th. Meanwhile, American teammate Paula and his Moltzan spun, going off the gate midway through the first run and failing to finish. Morzan broke his hand in Tuesday’s team event, which the US team won. Shiffrin did not compete in that event.
“The feel is as good as I thought it would be, so you won’t be disappointed,” said Morzan, who taped the glove to the stock while skating. “I misjudged my turn a little bit, went a little inside and I think I couldn’t recover.”
The men’s giant slalom is scheduled for Friday.