MILAN — Mikaela Shiffrin redefined her Olympic legacy Wednesday morning by reclaiming the slalom gold medal she won in 2014 and 2018 but lost in a disastrous Beijing Games four years.
Skiing on the same mountain where she crashed less than a month ago, putting her participation in the Milano Cortina Olympic Games in question, further solidified her position as the greatest Alpine skier in history, winning the gold medal by a massive 1.50 seconds over silver medalist Camille Rast of Switzerland.
Shiffrin’s victory was as much about her ability to focus and it was her unmatched physical skills.
Shiffrin led after the first of Wednesday’s two runs over Germany’s Lena Duerr by more than eight-tenths of a second, 47.13 to 47.95.
“It was a really good run, for me it felt really clean and really active but also a little bit on the limit,” Shiffrin said after her first run. “There were a couple moments where I thought I could easily be off this course right now but just keep pushing and keep fighting and in the end, I got to the finish.”
Shiffrin was in the back of the start house when Duerr, skiing next to last on the second run, clipped the very first gate and crashed out.
“Rip this thing,” a U.S. coach told Shiffrin. “You’ve got it.”
Instead of getting rattled by Duerr’s crash or skiing not to lose, Shiffrin raced aggressively, building on her lead all the way to the finish line, stopping the clock at 51.97, the second run’s second fastest time, for a combined time of 1-minute, 39.10 seconds.
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