Mikaela Shiffrin unfortunately couldn’t enhance her medal tally or reinforce her status as the most decorated American skier on Tuesday.
In the new combined team event at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson finished in fourth place, missing the chance for Shiffrin’s third Olympic gold, which would have been her first since 2018.
The gold went to Austria’s Ariane Laidler and Katarina Huber, while Germany’s Emma Eicher and Kira Weidl-Winkelmann took silver. The American pair of Jackie Wiles and Paula Motlzan secured third.
2026 Winter Olympics
Johnson had already clinched the women’s downhill over the weekend and recorded the fastest time in the downhill segment of the combined event earlier on Tuesday. This could have marked her second gold medal of the games.
But Shiffrin struggled in the slalom, posting the 15th fastest time, which was over a second slower than Eicher.
At 30, Shiffrin had a disappointing outing in six events at the 2022 Beijing Games after excelling in the slalom at Sochi 2014 and the giant slalom at Pyeongchang 2018, where she also earned silver in the alpine combined.
Johnson also aged 30, concluded the downhill just 0.06 seconds ahead of Austria’s Radler, putting her teammate in a promising position for the team combined event.
Fortunately, there were no significant crashes during the downhill, although fellow American star Lindsey Vonn sustained a severe injury on Sunday, having to be airlifted after breaking her left leg.
After the race, Johnson expressed a sense of calm, saying, “I didn’t really feel worried about getting a flat tire, which was my biggest fear today.” She focused on enjoying the experience instead of stressing out.
Shiffrin reached out via text after the races, sharing her admiration for Johnson’s performance, to which Johnson replied with encouragement, saying, “No pressure from me, just go get them.” Johnson added, “I’ve already won the gold medal. I hope she enjoys it and does her best, but if things don’t go perfectly, I won’t feel like everything’s fallen apart.”
The two long-time friends worked together to secure gold in this event’s debut at last year’s world championships.
In the end, Shiffrin couldn’t catch up at each checkpoint, finishing 0.31 seconds behind. Shiffrin and Johnson still managed to grab the bronze medal, narrowly outperforming the rest of the American team by 0.06 seconds.
Following the event, Shiffrin and Johnson were spotted sharing a heartfelt embrace.
