CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – American Mikaela Shiffrin won her slalom winning streak at the world championships on Saturday that Katharina Liensberger finished the title in Austria after ten years.
Shiffrin had to settle for bronze after winning gold in slalom on a record four consecutive worlds since Marlies Raich, who competed 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, Slovakia’s World Cup leader and Slovakia’s global, was one second behind the Austrian to get the silver.
After his triumph in Tuesday’s side event, Liensberger became a two-time world champion, but has yet to win at the World Cup circuit.
“I gave it my all today,” Liensberger said. “I worked hard for it, every day of preparation. It’s amazing that everything comes back. If you really want something, the whole universe, it just happens to you.”
Earlier, Shiffrin won gold in the combined event and took the silver in the giant slalom after opening the world with bronze in super-G. It made her the only fifth female skier to win four medals in a world, and the first since the outstanding Swede, Anja Parson, achieved the feat 14 years ago.
“It’s amazing,” Shiffrin said. “I don’t think there was a time when I could have said‘ I win four medals in a world championship. ’But it’s one thing to dream of getting medals, but the moment it counts, to have a ski good enough to do -It’s really special for the world championships to do it four times, it’s really special. “
Shiffrin’s previous world title came in the 2018-19 World Cup season, which he broke records, and he won 17 races on the track of his third overall title.
This season is different for the American. Last year he took a ten-month break from racing after the death of his father, Jeff Shiffrin, who was followed by a coronavirus pandemic and a back injury.
“If it were last year, I might be disappointed but not so grateful for the good times of the day,” Shiffrin said. “Maybe the ‘normal’ will always change. I have a different opinion of what normal means now. Here, in these last two weeks, every day I had something really special, and it’s something to smile about.”