Winter Olympics shock: Shiffrin denied podium return in team heartbreak

Mikaela Shiffrin’s long wait for an Olympic return to the podium continues after the American superstar finished fourth in the Alpine combined, narrowly edged out by her own teammates.

Fresh from her downhill gold on Sunday, Breezy Johnson had placed the United States’ top pairing in pole position with a dominant opening run.

That brilliant performance left Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup skier in history, with the task of securing gold as the final racer on the course.

However, the 30-year-old lacked her characteristic aggression on the Olympia delle Tofane piste, finishing 0.31 seconds adrift of the winning time.

Teammates deliver sting in the tail

Compounding the disappointment for the favourites, it was the United States ‘B’ team who snatched the bronze medal by a mere 0.08 seconds.

Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan produced the upset of the day to leave the reigning world champions empty-handed.

Austria’s second pairing of Ariane Raedler and Katharine Huber claimed the gold medal with a combined time of 2:21.66.

Germany secured silver through Emma Aicher and Kira Weidle-Winkelmann, who finished five-tenths behind the Austrian duo.

Aicher’s performance was particularly notable, having opted to switch focus to the slalom event after narrowly missing out on a medal in the individual downhill.

Haunted by history

This result marks a continuation of Shiffrin’s puzzling Olympic struggles since her gold medal success in Pyeongchang eight years ago.

The Coloradan endured a nightmare campaign at Beijing 2022, where she failed to finish three events and left without a single medal.

Following her third disqualification at those Games, a devastated Shiffrin had previously described herself as feeling “like a joke”.

Her current Olympic form stands in stark contrast to her dominance on the World Cup circuit, where she has amassed a record 108 victories.

Despite having secured the crystal globe and winning seven of eight slalom events this season, the slalom specialist could only manage the 15th fastest time of the slalom leg.

While Shiffrin skied cleanly without major errors, her run lacked the spark required to hold off the charging European teams and her compatriots.