Mikaela Shiffrin ‘blows’ combined gold with astonishing late error at Alpine World Ski Championships

Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on gold in the women’s combined at the Alpine World Ski Championships after an astonishing late error in her favoured slalom event.

The timings board was flashing green as Shiffrin eroded Federica Brignone’s lead from the super-G sector by sector, leaving her just 0.08 seconds behind as she charged towards the finish with the momentum.

But with just a handful of gates remaining, and a seventh world title in her sights, Shiffrin suddenly lost her balance, reared up onto one ski, straddled a gate and veered away from the tight final turns.

“She has blown it three gates from home!” cried Nick Fellows in the Eurosport commentary box. “That is such a dramatic moment for Shiffrin.”

Even Brignone, in the provisional lead, could not fathom what she had witnessed to her main challenger for gold – raising both arms over head in disbelief.

“Shiffrin can’t believe it, and neither can we! She had done all the work and made all the time,” continued Fellows.

“The gold medal was three turns away and she straddles!”

Shiffrin headed into the slalom facing a huge task to win gold after Brignone had ripped up the super-G and then posted a very solid slalom time.

The American needed to claw back 0.96 seconds on a slalom course that was kinder than many on the World Cup circuit.

A superb middle sector put the 27-year-old in pole position for gold, but her extra speed proved her undoing as her technique deserted her at the last.

“After the super-G run I was like ‘hmmm, I don’t know if I can make up one second on her [Brignone] actually because she’s an amazing athlete,” Shiffrin told Eurosport.

“She doesn’t ski slalom very often but when she skis slalom, she’s very good. You could see she had a great slalom run.

“I knew that the only chance I had for a gold was to basically take all of the risk and push really hard. That’s what I did and of course it didn’t work out at the end. I’m disappointed of course but I’m quite happy with the skiing so I’ll take that and keep going.”

Shiffrin arrived at the showpiece event in Meribel on the back of a stunning World Cup campaign, which saw her overtake Lindsey Vonn as the most successful women in history and move within one win of Ingemar Stenmark’s all-time record.

However, her late unravelling in the French Alps will bring back unwanted memories from the Beijing Olympics last year, when she suffered a string of disappointments.

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