Shiffrin rules out racing downhill at worlds

Mikaela Shiffrin has ruled out skiing the downhill at the world championships — keeping to her pre-announced schedule of four events.

U.S. star inspected course before opening downhill training session Tuesday

American skier Mikaela Shiffrin reacts after her run at the world alpine ski championships in France.
Mikaela Shiffrin straddled a gate in the slalom leg and was disqualified from the combined race Monday that opened the world championships. (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

Mikaela Shiffrin has ruled out skiing the downhill at the world championships — keeping to her pre-announced schedule of four events.

Shiffrin inspected the course before the opening downhill training session Tuesday just to take a look at the layout ahead of Wednesday's super-G race. But she did not enter the training session.

Then she performed a few runs of super-G training.

Shiffrin straddled a gate in the slalom leg and was disqualified from the combined race Monday that opened the championships.

After the super-G, she also plans to ski her preferred events of giant slalom and slalom at the end of next week. Shiffrin had left open a small possibility that she would race the downhill but now she has decided not to.

World Cup downhill leader Sofia Goggia led the training session, placing 0.26 seconds ahead of Italian teammate Elena Curtoni and 0.44 ahead of two-time world champion Ilka Stuhec.

WATCH | Shiffrin skis out near end of Monday's slalom at worlds:

Reigning world champ Shiffrin dethroned after missing gate at end of women's combined slalom run

2 years ago
Duration 1:44
American Mikaela Shiffrin seemed to be on her way to successfully defending her women's combined world championship title, until she straddled the third-to-last gate of her slalom run, and was disqualified.

"The time doesn't reflect how it felt, because on the top part, which is full of bumps, I was a bit wide in a few areas. The same thing midway down. Clearly, it's a course that needs to be dissected well. There needs to be the right mix of intensity and tactics," Goggia said.

"Fortunately there are two more training sessions before Saturday's race, split up by the super-G," Goggia added. "I've got a lot to study and visualize over these next few days."

Watch live coverage of this week's world alpine ski championships on CBCSports.ca, CBC Gem and CBC Sports app for iOS and Android.

With files from CBC Sports

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