Mikaela Shiffrin

Shiffrin Takes Silver in Alpine Combined, Gisin Wins Gold

Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won the gold

Lindsey Vonn was last to go out of the gate in the slalom part of the Olympic Alpine combined event, with a chance at a medal after clinching the top spot on the leader board in the downhill run. 

But Vonn missed a gate early and and didn't finish in what's likely her final Winter Games. Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won the gold with an aggressive slalom run to edge American Mikaela Shiffrin at the Pyeongchang Olympics.

Gisin was nearly flawless in finishing in a combined time of 2 minutes, 20.90 seconds to hold off silver medalist Shiffrin by 0.97 seconds. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland earned the bronze.

Shiffrin adds the silver medal to the gold she won earlier in the games in the giant slalom.

It was very likely the first and only Olympic race between U.S. teammates Vonn and Shiffrin.

Shiffrin's signature event is the slalom. She won the Olympic title in the discipline four years ago in Sochi, before finishing fourth in the event at the Pyeongchang Games.

"I want to put out a run that I know I can be really proud of," Shiffrin said. "So I have a chance to do that this afternoon and I'm looking forward to it."

Shiffrin is vying for her third career Olympic gold medal, which would be the most in American Alpine skiing history.

Vonn posted the fastest time of 1 minute, 39.37 seconds, in the downhill portion of the event with Shiffrin not all that far back in sixth even after what she described as a "big mistake" near the top.

Asked exactly how much slalom training she's done lately, Vonn smiled, curling her index finger and thumb to make a "0."

"I took one warmup run going to the slalom inspection in Lenzerheide," Vonn said, alluding to her fourth-place finish at the World Cup stop in Switzerland in the combined last month. "I took one warmup run going to the race in Lenzerheide. So those are my last two slalom runs. And before that I did one day of slalom training before Christmas. So that's the extent my slalom training this year."

This very well could be Vonn's last race at the Olympics. At 33, she's already the oldest female Alpine ski racer to earn a medal with her bronze in the downhill on Wednesday. That goes with the gold from the 2010 Games. She didn't compete at the Sochi Games because of a knee injury.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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