The U.S. women’s medal streak at the world championships is over.
Barely.
Paula Moltzan was fourth in the slalom Saturday morning, missing the bronze medal by just 0.02 seconds, while Mikaela Shiffrin finished fifth, just 0.05 seconds out of third place. It’s the first race at worlds without a U.S. woman on the podium after golds in the downhill (Breezy Johnson) and team combined (Johnson and Shiffrin), and bronzes in the super-G (Lauren Macuga) and giant slalom (Moltzan).
Still, this was still the best performance by the U.S. women at worlds in four decades, a promising sign a year out from the Milan Cortina Olympics. The four medals match the high for the Americans, and it’s the first time since 1985 that three different women have won individual medals.
‘It’s been so cool to watch all my teammates perform and succeed. That just makes it feel really bright for the future of our team,’ Shiffrin said.
‘I don’t remember during the time that I’ve been skiing having this much depth,’ she added. ‘It’s been incredible to watch that build over the years and culminating at this world championships. I hope it continues to build over the next year. And the next several years.’
This was the first time in seven appearances at the world championships that Shiffrin didn’t medal in the slalom, an event she’s won four times. A medal Saturday also would have been her 16th, making her the most-decorated skier ever at worlds.
But this was also just the third race for Shiffrin since she suffered a deep gash in her obliques after being punctured — she still doesn’t know by what — in a crash in the GS race at the World Cup in Killington, Vermont.
Or, as Shiffrin put it, eight weeks ago she was having surgery. Six weeks ago she was still in bed with a drainage tube. On Saturday, she had a top-five finish at the world championships, a heartbeat away from the podium.
‘It’s sort of strange to balance the feeling of, `I just want to make progress’ and then the feeling of where do the medals fit into that? Winning one gold was out-of-this-world, beyond expectations,’ Shiffrin said. ‘In the end, today was something I can learn from and hopefully continue to recover well for the rest of the season.’
Besides recovering from the injury itself, Shiffrin has to get herself back in race form. She was off the slopes for almost two months, and said before the slalom race that she’s still working on her consistency. She will have some great turns in training and sections where she feels she’s back to her old self, but it will take time until she can maintain that throughout the entire course in a two-run race.
And while she’s strong enough to race, she’s still working on her stamina.
All of it was evident in the second slalom run.
Shiffrin had been third in the first run, 0.72 seconds behind Switzerland’s Camille Rast. She made a slight error early in the second run but was quickly able to get herself back on track. She lost speed in the third section of the steep course, however, and couldn’t recoup it despite making a late push.
‘When I was coming down the final pitch today I was like, `Oh no,” Shiffrin said, laughing. ‘…The anaerobic endurance is coming, but it just takes time. It will be a continued recovery through the rest of the season.’
Shiffrin was third with two skiers still to go when she crossed the finish line. Austria’s Katharina Liensberger, up next, made a furious push at the end that was good enough to edge both Shiffrin and Moltzan off the podium.
Liensberger finished in 1:59.32, 0.02 seconds ahead of Moltzan and 0.05 seconds ahead of Shiffrin. It was a reversal of Moltzon’s fortunes in the GS, where she won the bronze medal by 0.01 seconds.
“Some days you’re on the right side of the hundredths, and some days you’re on the wrong,” Moltzan said on Peacock.
Rast won the slalom title and Wendy Holdener was second, giving Switzerland a 1-2 finish.
The World Cup season resumes next weekend in Sestriere, Italy, with two giant slalom races and a slalom. Shiffrin didn’t race GS at worlds, citing lingering PTSD from the crash at Killington. But she said Saturday that she’ll try and race it next weekend.
‘We’ll see. But I think I can get there to the point where my GS skiing is good enough without it being dangerous,’ she said.
Shiffrin’s next World Cup victory will be her 100th, extending a mark that is unlikely to ever be matched.
