Shiffrin wins record-tying 15th worlds medal as U.S. team takes new combined event
Canadians Gray, St-Germain finish 19th
Mikaela Shiffrin won a record-equaling 15th world championship medal and Breezy Johnson became double world champion on Tuesday when the American pair took gold in the new team combined event in Saalbach, Austria.
Shiffrin was third-fastest in the slalom at the Alpine skiing worlds, just over three hours after Johnson had clocked the fourth-best time in the downhill, as together they beat silver medalists Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland by 0.39 seconds.
Stephanie Venier and Katharina Truppe of Austria took bronze.
The gold was Shiffrin's 15th career medal from world championships and she matches the record set in the 1930s by German skier Christl Cranz.
It's the second gold medal for Johnson, who won the downhill last Saturday, two months after she returned from a 14-month ban for three violations of the "whereabout" anti-doping rules.
WATCH | Shiffrin, Johnson win inaugural combined event:
WATCH | Shiffrin speaks with CBC Sports about her win:
"It's pretty crazy. I think if you would have told us when we met that we would team up to win a world championship medal, I think neither of us would have believed it," said Johnson, who has been friends, and skied, with Shiffrin since their youth.
Shiffrin said: "So many things had to happen in the last … how long it's been since we were 11. In order for this to happen we needed a new event entirely. This was an amazing day for me up there, nerve-racking because Breezy did her job just spectacularly this morning. It was so much fun to watch all these days, day in day out, she has been executing … So, really, really unbelievable."
WATCH | Lindsey Vonn says she 'didn't help situation' with social media post:
Reacting to Shiffrin's 15th career medal in the worlds, Johnson quipped, "If we keep adding team events, maybe we can get 32 for her or something," before adding, "she is a legend, it's super cool to be hitting my stride and she's obviously been on hers for a decade."
The team combined entails one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom, with their two times added up to determine the final results.
The team combined will make its debut at next year's Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Lauren Macuga had posted the fastest time in the downhill, but her American team dropped to fourth and missed a medal by 0.11 seconds after Paula Moltzen raced in the slalom.
WATCH | Canadians finished 19th in combined:
WATCH | Canada's Gray says 'I feel like I belong':
The Canadian duo of Cassidy Gray, of Invermere, B.C., and Laurence St-Germain, of St. Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., finished 19th.
Lindsey Vonn finished the downhill 2.51 seconds off the lead in 21st position out of 26 starters and ended up in 16th with teammate AJ Hurt.
Recovered from an abdominal injury that required surgery in December, Shiffrin competed in her first event at the worlds.
She initially planned to race in the giant slalom, as defending champion, and the slalom but skip the team combined, then changed her mind Monday when she felt not ready yet to compete in Thursday's GS.
With GS training off her schedule, she then decided to enter the team combined.
Vonn had campaigned to race with Shiffrin on an American team that would have united the two most successful skiers in World Cup history, but the coaching staff decided to form the teams based on "season-best results" in both downhill and slalom.
"It would have been a cool thing if those two greats would have raced together, but at the moment others are stronger in their performance," American speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser said. "We had to make sure to bring the fastest pairings together, and it was very obvious that Breezy was the fastest in the downhill and therefore would race with Mikaela."
After her downhill display, American star Vonn said: "I had no speed at all ... I tried to give my best, as always. Unfortunately it was not my world championships. The skis are fast, but for me something is wrong with my boots and in the turns I don't get any speed. I stayed in my tuck but I was a turtle the whole way down."
Vonn came out of retirement, after nearly six years, at age 40 this season with a new titanium knee. She scored two top-10 finishes on the World Cup circuit in January but did not finish the super-G and placed 15th in the downhill at the worlds.
Watch live coverage of the alpine world championships on CBCSports.ca and CBC Gem. A live streaming schedule is available here.
