CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – American Mikaela Shiffrin had her winning streak in slalom world championships ended on Saturday by Katharina Liensberger when the title returned to Austria after 10 years.
Shiffrin had to settle for bronze after earning slalom gold on a record four worlds in a row since Marlies Raich – who competed under her maiden name Shield – won it in 2011.
This time, Shiffrin finished 1.98 seconds behind Liensberger, who set the fastest times in both runs. Petra Vlhova, the overall and slalom World Cup leader from Slovakia, was one second behind the Austrian for silver.
Following her triumph in Tuesday’s parallel event, Liensberger became a double world champion, but has yet to win at the World Cup circuit.
“I really gave everything today,” said Liensberger. “I’ve worked so hard every day in preparation. It’s amazing it all comes back. If you really want something, the whole universe, it just happens for you.”
Shiffrin previously won gold in the combined event, taking silver in giant slalom after opening the world with bronze in super-G. It made her only the fifth female skier to win four medals in one world, and the first since Swedish CEO Anja Parson achieved this feat 14 years ago.
“It’s incredible,” said Shiffrin. “I don’t think there was ever a time when I could have said,” I win four medals in one world championship. “But it’s one thing to dream about getting the medals, but when it counts, skiing good enough to do it, especially for the world championships doing it four times, is really special.”
Shiffrin’s previous world title came in her record-breaking 2018-19 World Cup season, winning 17 races on her way to her third overall title.
This season is a different season for the American. She took a 10-month break last year after the death of her father, Jeff Shiffrin, which was followed by the coronavirus pandemic and a back injury.
“If this was last year I might be disappointed, but not so grateful for the good times of the day,” said Shiffrin. “Maybe ‘normal’ will just change all the time. I have a different view of what normal means now. Here, for the past two weeks, every day had something very special, and it’s something to smile about.”