Shiffrin 11th in Olympic giant slalom as Italian Brignone captures second gold medal in Cortina

Mikaela Shiffrin placed 11th in the Olympic giant slalom on Sunday morning in Cortina as Federica Brignone continued her magical comeback on home snow.

“That was like the greatest show of GS skiing that we’ve had in a really long time,” Shiffrin said. “Federica skied incredible. That was so cool to watch.”

Brignone, who suffered a double leg break just 10 months ago and didn’t know if she would even compete in Italy, wowed the crowd with another inspirational victory after capturing gold in the super-G on Thursday. The 35-year-old posted a two-run time of 2 minutes, 13.50 seconds to win by more than half a second. Sara Hector and Thea Louise Stjernesund tied for silver as Italy’s Lara Della Mea moved up 11 spots to finish fourth.

“I crossed the finish line and I said, ‘I don’t know if it’s enough when I went through the last few gates’. Then I heard the crowd and I said, ‘Oh, maybe yes,'” Brignone told FIS. “Then I turned around and I saw number one. I have too many emotions. I can’t believe it, yet again!”

The runner-up from run No. 1, Lena Duerr, looked poised to at least make the podium after a scorching third sector, but all the medals slipped away at the bottom of the course as the German slid into ninth. The same was true for Sofia Goggia, who was looking for hardware in what is considered her weakest discipline after skiing out of the super-G a few days ago.

Shiffrin, who stepped on her first giant slalom podium in two years at Spindleruv Mlyn on Jan. 24, was in seventh after the first run, 1.02 seconds off Brignone. In her second trip down the Olympia delle Tofane course, Shiffrin was low on the line, skiing clean and aggressive at the top, but lost 0.35 seconds in the second sector. She gained back some time on the third interval, but ended up 0.92 seconds off the win.

“I was pushing, trying to turn any nervous energy into sort of intensity, taking the power from the course,” Shiffrin said. “It’s a challenging GS hill, which we have not skied very often. We skied it once before and especially with the terrain they built in for the speed races. We don’t often get GS courses with jumps in them.”

Despite what multiple athletes described as “perfect conditions,” the various aerial elements impacted Shiffrin’s teammate, Paula Moltzan. The fellow former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail skier — who has stepped on three World Cup GS podiums this year — dropped two spots in her second run to place 15th.

“I was actually really happy with my run minus one turn,” the Minnesota native said. “Over this bottom roll I caught some air. Not a very good downhill skier, not very good in the air, so also taking a lesson from that.”

Nina O’Brien moved up nine spots to take 20th while the fourth and final American starter, A.J. Hurt, was sitting in fourth after the third interval but wound up posting a DNF.

Edwards resident Phoebe Heaydon was 40th after the first run for Australia while Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Anabelle Zurbay placed 57th for Ireland in her Olympic debut. Vail’s Sarah Schleper, competing for Mexico, was 50th at the finish but was disqualified.

Shiffrin placed fourth in the team combined event earlier at this Olympics even though teammate Breezy Johnson put her in the lead after the downhill leg. Shiffrin won gold in the slalom in 2014 and in the giant slalom four years later. The Edwards skier also has a silver medal in the combined from Pyeongchang 2018 but came away from the 2022 Beijing Games with no medals after competing in six events. When asked about her expectations coming into Sunday’s race, Shiffrin replied, “I’m here for the turns, I’m here for the skiing.”

“I wanted to earn it with my skiing — powerful, connected skiing — and I feel like I executed that to the best of my current abilities,” she said before adding that she’s proud of the progress she’s made since her November 2024 injury.

“For me, personally, returning to racing after the injury last year and returning to GS racing and I was so far off and I felt like there was no hope to be faster — and then to be here now within touch of the fastest women, that’s huge for me,” she said.

The last event for Shiffrin at this Olympics is the slalom on Wednesday. The 30-year-old has won seven of the eight slaloms on the World Cup this year and recently secured her ninth discipline crystal globe. After the team combined event, Shiffrin said she had a productive training session with her team.

“There were a lot of turns where I was quite quick on the team combined day and a handful where there was just a misalignment, and it was a couple things — a combination of course setting, equipment and conditions — and then my mentality was not matching the day,” Shiffrin said. “So, I’m kind of going into it with my eyes open that we could see a very similar situation and I will try to handle it differently in my head.”