Shiffrin gets combined silver
Vonn skis off course in slalom portion in final race of her Olympic career
Mikaela Shiffrin already was assured of earning her third career medal, each in a different event, when Lindsey Vonn prepared to propel herself out of the starting gate as the final starter in the final race of her Olympic career.
This slalom portion of the two-leg Alpine combined in Jeongseon, South Korea, would be the first and only time Vonn, 33, and U. S. teammate Shiffrin, 22, would compete against each other at any Olympics. Could Vonn possibly summon a “miracle,” as she called it, a slalom performance from somewhere in her past to make a lead from the downhill portion stand up? Could Shiffrin hold onto her silver?
With the snow carefully descending under the artificial lights lining the course, the drama quickly dimmed. Vonn’s slalom lasted all of about 10 seconds before she went offcourse, leaving Shiffrin in second place Thursday between two women from Switzerland: gold medalist Michelle Gisin and bronze medalist Wendy Holdener.
Gisin, whose older sister Dominique tied for first in the 2014 Olympic downhill, produced a total time of 2 minutes, 20.90 seconds that was 0.97 seconds better than Shiffrin’s. Holdener was nearly 1 second off Gisin’s pace, turning in the fastest slalom after standing 10th after the downhill.
Shiffrin ranked sixth in the downhill, 1.21 seconds slower than Gisin, and wasn’t able to make up that large a deficit in her forte, the slalom, which was a much shorter track. The downhill took about 100 seconds; the slalom about 40.
“Clearly,” said Shiffrin’s coach, Mike Day, “the downhill didn’t go quite to plan.”
Still, Shiffrin added the combined silver to her gi- ant slalom gold from a week earlier, giving her two medals plus a surprisingly low fourth-place finish in the slalom in three races. She arrived in South Korea to chatter about entering five, but after a series of weather-related schedule changes, wound up dropping two.
“It’s really nice to be at the end of it,” she said, “and know that I do have two medals.”
With her slalom gold from the 2014 Games, Shiffrin joins Bode Miller and Julia Mancuso as the only Americans with a medal in each of at least three Alpine disciplines.
Vonn said this must be her last Olympics because her oft-injured body cannot endure another four years.
After Vonn’s slalom ended suddenly, she crossed paths with Shiffrin in the finish area. They had a brief exchange.
“I mean, it’s incredible what she’s able to accomplish. She’s so young and she approaches ski racing much different than pretty much anyone else,” Vonn said later. “I think she had potential to do a lot more at these Games, but at the same time same like me, you can’t expect everything all the time.” SOUTH KOREA EARNS 6 SHORT-TRACK MEDALS » There were crashes, penalties, shattered blades and surprises. It all added up to a historic night of shorttrack racing, with South Korea winning a leading six medals in the nation’s favorite Winter Olympic sport but no gold on the last night of competition.
The Koreans crashed with 23 laps to go in the men’s 5,000-meter relay final (won by Hungary), and the same fate befell goldmedal favorites Choi Minjeong and Shim Suk-hee in the women’s 1,000 final.
Wu Dajing of China dominated the men’s 500, setting a world record in becoming the first man from his country to win shorttrack gold. South Koreans Hwang Dae-heon and Lim Hyo-jun claimed silver and bronze.
In the women’s 1,000, Suzanne Schulting of the Netherlands pulled off an upset, giving the country better known for its long-track success a fourth medal in short track. OTHER MEDALS » In the men’s slalom, Andre-Myhrer, a 35-year- old Swede, was the unlikely champion after Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen— the best slalom skiers on the World Cup circuit — couldn’t complete two runs. ... Canada’s Kelsey Serwa raced to victory in women’s skicross, giving her a gold medal to go with the silver she won in Sochi four years ago. ... Belarus won the gold in the women’s 4x6-kilometer biathlon relay, finishing in 1:12:03.4. ... Carrying his country’s flag in one hand as he crossed the finish line, Johannes Rydzek capped a dominating performance to give Germany gold in the Nordic combined team event.