Mikaela Shiffrin wins combined gold in Saalbach, one day after pulling out of giant slalom due to ‘mental barriers’
Updated 11/02/2025 at 14:09 GMT
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Mikaela Shiffrin won gold in the women’s combined at the FIS World Ski Championships, alongside fellow American Breezy Johnson, just a day after withdrawing from the giant slalom due to “soul-crushing fear”. The American duo sat fourth after Johnson's downhill run but Shiffrin's slalom was enough to earn them a stunning victory in Saalbach.
Shiffrin nails run to win gold in combined event at World Championships
Video credit: TNT Sports
Mikaela Shiffrin claimed a record-tying 15th World Championship medal and eighth gold of her incredible career in the new team combined event alongside Breezy Johnson.
Shiffrin pulled out of the individual giant slalom event after admitting she has been left with a "soul-crushing" feeling of "fear" after suffering a puncture wound to her abdomen and severe muscle trauma in a crash in Killington, Vermont, in November.
The 29-year-old required surgery, and while she has healed well physically, she said she is still "quite far away" from being able to compete in GS.
However, she teamed up with newly-crowned downhill world champion Johnson to win gold by 0.39 seconds from Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener in Saalbach on Tuesday.
"It's pretty crazy," Johnson told Eurosport. "I think if you would have told us when we met that we would team up to win the world championship medal, I don't think either of us would have believed it."
Shiffrin added: "So many things had to happen in the last however long it's been since we were 11 in order for this to happen. We needed a new event entirely.
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Shiffrin, Johnson celebrate combined gold after Moltzan misses out on podium
Video credit: TNT Sports
"This was an amazing day. For me up there [it was] nerve-racking because Breezy did her job just spectacularly this morning.
"It was so much fun to watch. Day in and day out she's been executing and so I was up there like s***. So really, really, unbelievable."
The American duo were in fourth position after Johnson’s downhill run but took provisional top spot from Gut-Behrami and Holdener after Shiffrin’s slalom. They hung onto it when the Austrian, German and American teams were unable to beat their benchmark.
- 'Soul-crushing' fear forces Shiffrin to pull out of World Championships giant slalom
- Mayhem at World Championships with dramatic crashes and perplexing false start
Austria’s Stephanie Venier and Katharina Truppe completed the podium in third.
Shiffrin now holds the outright record for most World Championship golds in the modern era, breaking her tie with Toni Sailer, Marielle Goitschel, Anja Paerson and Marcel Hirscher.
Lindsey Vonn, who teased a potential partnership with Shiffrin in the team combined event, finished 16th alongside AJ Hurt, in what is expected to be her last World Championships.
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