Shiffrin Adds Combined Silver

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. Lindsey Vonn (Vail, Colo.) racing in her final Olympic event, won the first run downhill, but straddled a gate in the slalom and did not finish.

“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.”Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin won the gold, as her countrywomen Wendy Holdener took the bronze."

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.”

Alice Merryweather (Hingham, Mass.) finished 15th in her first Olympic event. Shiffrin closes out the 2018 Games with a gold medal in giant slalom, fourth in slalom and now a silver medal in the alpine combined. Vonn closes out her Olympic career with three medals – bronze in Wednesday’s downhill; bronze in super-G and gold in downhill at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

RESULTS
Women’s alpine combined