Camille Rast on Saturday won slalom gold in a Swiss one-two with Wendy Holdener as American Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on a record 16th career medal at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.
Austria’s Katharina Liensberger took the bronze on home snow in the last women’s race of the 13-day championships in Saalbach.
Shiffrin had been third after the first run, but dropped back to finish fifth overall behind US teammate Paula Moltzan in fourth.
Photo: AFP
“Both runs were really different and really challenging and I just tried to have fun,” said Rast, who was fastest from Liensberger after the first leg with Holdener fourth, after winning by 0.46 seconds.
Rast became the first Swiss winner of the slalom since the great Vreni Schneider in 1991 at the same Austrian resort.
“Mentally I was ready for this day. I just wanted to enjoy the whole day. It’s mega cool to be on the podium with Wendy,” said the new champion, whose father, motorbike racer Philippe Rast, had successes in international enduro races.
Holdener was fastest of all down the second run, with Moltzan next on the timesheets, to move into the medal positions.
Shiffrin, who took a record-equaling 15th medal when she and downhill champion Breezy Johnson won the new women’s team combined event on Tuesday last week, was only the 12th quickest in the deciding run.
Saturday was the first time the world’s most successful skier had failed to medal in slalom in seven championships. She won four golds in a row from 2013 to 2019, silver in 2023 and bronze in 2021.
Despite the miss, she said her race had been a “really good step forward” in her return to the piste from a puncture wound in her left abdomen suffered in a giant slalom crash in Killington, Vermont.
“I think there are some obvious challenges that I face to keep improving in my skiing and maybe to get to the point where I can be fighting for podiums for the end of the season,” she told Eurosport.
“Eight weeks ago I had surgery and six weeks ago I was still in bed with a drainage tube,” she said. “It’s a funny place to be, to be recovering and returning to ski racing ... in the end I’m really grateful to be here.”
Additional reporting by AP
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