Switzerland's Gisin Is Golden In Alpine Combined

Lindsey Vonn’s garlanded Olympic career ended in anticlimax at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games on Thursday as Swiss Michelle Gisin (SUI) “grabbed the stars” and swept to gold in dominant fashion in the ladies’ Alpine combined event at Jeongseon Alpine Centre.

After a vintage performance to lead by 0.74 seconds after the downhill section of the race designed to find ski racing’s top all-rounder, hopes were high that Vonn (USA), the last out of the slalom gate, might seal her Olympic odyssey with one final medal run.

Yet as the snow began to come down, the great American’s challenge came to a juddering halt after just a few gates as she hooked a tip and was forced to ski out.

It left Gisin down below, who clocked a combined two minutes 20.90 seconds for the two runs, to celebrate a convincing win and the first major gold medal of her career following her silver medal in the Alpine combined at the World Championships last year.

The 24-year-old’s victory meant another celebration for the Gisin family after Michelle’s older sister Dominque Gisin (SUI), who was watching as a TV commentator, had won gold in ladies' downhill at Sochi 2014.

“Dominique’s gold will forever be the biggest thing,” said Gisin. “She made me believe that you can grab the stars and that's what I did today.”

Gisin could hardly credit that she had defeated the two pre-event favourites, silver medallist Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), who finished 0.97 seconds behind, and her Swiss compatriot Wendy Holdener (SUI), who was 1.44 seconds adrift.

Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.) added another Olympic medal to her collection, taking the silver medal in the alpine combined Thursday at the Jeongseon Alpine Center.

Shiffrin finished sixth in the downhill, then posted the third-fastest time in the slalom. However, Gisin finished third in the downhill - 1.21-seconds ahead of Shiffrin – and her advantage in the slalom for the victory.

“With my downhill today, I had a bit too much of a bobble at the top on the traverse to really feel comfortable sending it like crazy,” Shiffrin said. “After I made that mistake, I tried to be solid on my skis and not take too many risks, because for me, it doesn’t make sense to take a lot of risk on the downhill – for what? – I am not at that level yet. I knew I wasn’t going to win the race on the downhill today. Knowing it was a two-run race, I did what I could with the downhill and then switched my focus to the slalom.”

“To come away from this Olympics with two medals is insane – especially after the schedule changes on both ends of the event,” said Shiffrin, who opted to sit out the downhill to focus on the combined after the event was rescheduled to Thursday. “It was like someone was playing a game of ping-pong in my brain.”

Shiffrin finished sixth in the downhill, then posted the third-fastest time in the slalom. However, Gisin finished third in the downhill - 1.21-seconds ahead of Shiffrin – and her advantage in the slalom for the victory.

“With my downhill today, I had a bit too much of a bobble at the top on the traverse to really feel comfortable sending it like crazy,” Shiffrin said. “After I made that mistake, I tried to be solid on my skis and not take too many risks, because for me, it doesn’t make sense to take a lot of risk on the downhill – for what? – I am not at that level yet. I knew I wasn’t going to win the race on the downhill today. Knowing it was a two-run race, I did what I could with the downhill and then switched my focus to the slalom.”

Both celebrated winning their second medals of PyeongChang 2018, after Shiffrin had taken gold in the giant slalom and world Alpine combined champion Holdener silver in the slalom.

After the lead had changed seven times in the slalom, Gisin, who had been third, 0.77 seconds down on Vonn following the downhill, delivered “the best slalom of my life” to take the decisive lead.

It came after her teammate Holdener had applied the pressure, producing the fastest slalom leg in just 40.23 seconds, which rocketed her from 10th after the downhill to third. Shiffrin had been left too much to do after finishing sixth in the downhill and Ragnhild Mowinckel (NOR), seeking a third medal of the week, slumped back to fourth from second.

For Gisin, though, the hero of the hour was once again her sister. “I crashed into the finish area at the end of Wednesday’s downhill. Dominique stayed with me all afternoon and night, she took my phone away, took my messages, organised my physio so I had no stress at all. I just chilled and slept off a little headache.”