CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – American Mikaela Shiffrin had a series of slalom victories at the world championships ended on Saturday by Katharina Liensberger, the title returning to Austria after 10 years.
Shiffrin had to settle for bronze after winning a slalom gold record in four consecutive worlds since Marlies Raich – who competes under her maiden name Schild – won it in 2011.
This time, Shiffrin finished 1.98 seconds behind Liensberger, who set the fastest times in both races. Petra Vlhova, the global and slalom leader of the World Cup in Slovakia, was one second behind the Austrian for silver.
After her triumph in Tuesday’s side event, Liensberger became a two-time world champion, but has not yet won the World Cup.
“I really gave it my all today,” Liensberger said. “I worked so hard for it, every day in preparation. It’s amazing that everything comes back. If you really want something, the whole universe is just for you.”
Shiffrin won gold in the combined event earlier and took silver in the giant slalom after opening the worlds with bronze in the super-G. This made her only the fifth female skier to win four medals in a world, and first since the Swede stood out, Anja Parson achieved this 14 years ago.
“It’s incredible,” Shiffrin said. “I don’t think there was ever a time when I could say ‘I win four medals in a single world championship.’ But it’s one thing to dream of winning medals, but when it matters, having skis good enough to do that, especially for the world championships to do it four times, is really special. “
Shiffrin’s previous world title came in her 2018-19 World Cup record season, winning 17 races on her way to her third overall title.
This season is a different one for the American. She took a 10-month break from racing last year after the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, which was followed by a coronavirus pandemic and a back injury.
“If it had been last year, I might have been disappointed, but not so grateful for the good times of the day,” Shiffrin said. “Maybe ‘normal’ will change all the time. I have a different opinion about what normal means. “Here, in the last two weeks, every day has had something really special and something to smile about.”