Shiffrin wins gold after split with her coach

American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal in the women's giant slalom at the world championships a day after her unexpected split with longtime coach Mike Day.

Shiffrin overcame a mistake near the end of the race to hold on to her firstrun lead. When she saw her time, she covered her mouth with her hands, then collapsed to the snow in joy, relief and celebration.

“It's been definitely some high levels of stress these days,” Shiffrin said. “It was very, very difficult today to keep the focus and keep the intensity on the right level.”

Shiffrin's victory came two days after Day, her head coach since 2016, left her team during the middle of the championships in Meribel, France. Shiffrin informed him that she planned to take a new direction with her staff at the end of the season and Day decided to leave immediately.

“One thing I really want to say is just thank you to Mike for seven years of — I can't even say helping me — he's been such an integral part of my team and being there to support me through some of the most incredible moments in my career and some of the most challenging moments of my career and also my life,” Shiffrin said.

“So it's it's just a little bit sad how it came down,” Shiffrin said, adding that she was hoping to give Day “the time and the notice” to figure out his own plans before the end of the season but that his sudden departure was “difficult for all of us to imagine” after “being such a tight group, really a family.”

World championship races don't count toward the World Cup circuit, where Shiffrin has racked up 11 wins this season to take her overall tally to 85. She broke former teammate Lindsey Vonn's women's record of 82 last month and has moved within one of the overall mark set by Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark in the 1970s and '80s.