Shiffrin flops, Hansdotter wins slalom
Bruised Mayer rises from crash to grab super-G gold, Huskova triumphs in women’s aerials final
>> PYEONGCHANG: Mikaela Shiffrin was edged off the podium in the defence of her Olympic slalom title yesterday as Frida Hansdotter put her history of near-misses to one side to claim victory.
Shiffrin, back in action just 24 hours after winning giant slalom gold, left herself too much to do after coming in fourth in the first leg, before which she vomited.
Shiffrin, also the three-time consecutive world slalom champion, eventually finished fourth overall, with Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener taking silver and unheralded Austrian Katharina Gallhuber bronze.
“It’s a really big bummer because I know how I have been skiing slalom all season long,” said Shiffrin, who played down her initial concerns her vomiting might have been virus-related, instead putting it down to a bout of nerves.
“But I am really happy for the girls who did medal. I was fighting for the medal yesterday and I came out on the right side and I was fighting today, although not really in the way that I wanted to, and I came on the wrong side,” the 22-year-old American said.
“Somebody has to be in fourth place, it’s OK.”
Hansdotter could have been forgiven for thinking that she might finish her career without a major medal.
Having made her World Cup debut in 2007, the 32-year-old Swede claimed her first victory on the circuit in Kranjska Gora in 2014 to snap a record eight runner-up finishes.
That win has been followed by three more slalom victories, once in Lienz and twice in Flachau, the last coming in January 2017.
This season has seen a familiar pattern: twice second and three times third for a total of 31 World Cup podiums.
Even at the world championships, she has proven to be a serial podium troubler, having won silver in 2015 and bronzes in 2013 and 2017.
Asked whether she was glad to have bucked the trend in Pyeongchang, Hansdotter said: “Yes, for sure!
“I’m super happy with my career. This win today is magic, it’s a dream come true.”
Meanwhile Austria’s Matthias Mayer said his hip was still “blue” with bruising after a heavy crash this week but he shrugged off the injury to end Norwegian dominance in the men’s super-G.
Mayer has been on the physio table after he came down painfully and slid head-first into a barrier, also knocking over a bystander, during the slalom in the men’s combined on Tuesday.
But the Sochi 2014 downhill champion recovered to produce a blistering run in the super-G and break a Norwegian stranglehold on the event which stretches back to 2002.
Norwegian defending champion Kjetil Jansrud was on top until Mayer seized the lead with a descent of 1min 24.44sec. Switzerland’s Beat Feuz took silver, 0.13sec adrift, while Jansrud had to settle for bronze.
Norwegian skiers had won five of the eight previous Olympic super-G races, including the last four.
Hanna Huskova survived the tricky wind at Phoenix Snow Park to give Belarus a second straight Olympic gold medal in women’s aerials.
The 25-year-old Huskova narrowly edged Zhang Xin in tricky conditions that wreaked havoc with much of the 12-woman field. Huskova nailed her final jump, a double-twisting back layout, and posted a score of 96.14, just ahead of Zhang’s 95.52.
Kong Fanyu took bronze on a sloppy night, giving China two medals in yesterday’s event. Huskova and Zhang were the only two women in the finals to land all three of their jumps cleanly.
Esmee Visser of the Netherlands won the women’s 5,000m speed skating title, at 22 the second youngest Olympic champion at the distance.
Visser clocked 6min 50.23sec with Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic, attempting to win her third Olympic gold medal in the event, second in 6:51.58.
Natalia Voronina, skating as an Olympic Athlete from Russia, was third over two seconds further back. The Netherlands have now won six out of seven speed skating titles so far.
Italy’s Michela Moioli won the women’s snowboard cross title after dominating the event throughout the World Cup this season.
French 16-year-old Julia Pereira De Sousa was a surprise silver medal winner after struggling to qualify for the final. Defending champion Eva Samkova from the Czech Republic collected the bronze.