It’s been eight years since Mikaela Shiffrin stood on the Olympic medal podium. Did she end her medal drought in her last event at the Milan Cortina Games?
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Province of Belluno — Mikaela Shiffrin’s last event at the 2026 Winter Games changed the course of her 8-year-long Olympic medal drought, with the 30-year-old skier easily taking gold in the women’s slalom.
Shiffrin started with a 1.05 second lead from her first run, and she capitalized on it through the first half of the run, increasing her lead rather than eating into it.
The champion U.S. skier finished with a 1.5 second lead, taking the gold medal with time to spare.
Shiffrin had yet to win a medal at the Milan Cortina Games. But it all changed on Wednesday when she finished in 1st place with a time of 1:39.10 in her signature discipline.
The slalom wraps up the women’s alpine skiing racing program, meaning it was Shiffrin’s last chance to get back on the podium after eight years.
Team USA also had Paula Moltzan, Nina O’Brien and AJ Hurt in the event.
During the second and final round of runs for the women’s slalom, Paula Moltzan ripped through the course, taking off almost a half second from the lead time in the first run. Although her time was eventually beaten and she moved off the podium position, she held the lead for nearly a dozen racers before being dethroned.
AJ Hurt had a clean run, but wasn’t able to overcome Moltzan’s impressive time and came in 1.5 seconds behind her time.
Nina O’Brien DNFed her first run, making her ineligible for a second.
Shiffrin started seventh in the first run, and blasted through it, taking a 1.05 second advantage into her gold-winning run.
The last time Shiffrin made it to the Olympic podium was in the 2018 Winter Games. Wednesday’s win adds to her gold medal from the 2014 Winter Games, where, as a teenager, she became the youngest slalom gold medalist.
Days before her last event, Shiffrin placed 11th in the giant slalom but expressed optimism about her speed despite a close finish. Shiffrin was just three-tenths of a second off the podium, a razor-thin margin in an event where the time gap between the winners and the rest of the field is usually far greater.
She told Olympics.com that she prefers “not to have expectations” at this stage and that the giant slalom is “really great practice for a strong, flexible mentality” ahead of the slalom: “We will be adaptable on slalom race day, and the best I can do is show up in the start gate and turn nervousness into intensity.”
The U.S. skier arrived in Cortina d’Ampezzo seeking redemption after a nightmarish time at the Beijing Games in 2022, when she didn’t win a medal in six events — failing to even finish in three of them. She cut down her schedule to three disciplines for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Shiffrin holds three records for World Cup wins with 71 and 9 slalom globes. She has also claimed four world titles.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.