Italian Federica Brignone won the Alpine Combined as the curtain-raiser of the Alpine Skiing World Championships on Monday after defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin unexpectedly crashed out of the course in the second run.
Under clear skies, Brignone clocked a cumulative time of one minute and 57.47 seconds. She slashed 1.62 seconds from Wendy Holdener of Switzerland and 2.26 seconds from Ricarda Haaser of Austria.
For her part, Marie-Michèle Gagnon, of Lac-Etchemin, ended up in the 10e rank, at 4.91 seconds, while Valérie Grenier, of Saint-Isidore, Ont., finished 14eat 6.63.
The alpine combined is made up of a super-G and a slalom.
Brignone thus became the first world champion of Italian origin in the alpine combined.
“I’m so happy and grateful today,” Brignone said. It’s been a wonderful day. I had two very good runs, both in super-G and in slalom. I was missing a gold medal [aux Mondiaux] career, and I’m very, very excited and very happy with the result today. »
The Italian said she approached the Alpine Skiing World Championships in a relaxed manner.
“I ski well. I arrived here without stress and I said to myself: “Have fun”, said Brignone.
Brignone had recorded the fastest time in the first round on the Roc de Fer course, and she then had a cushion of 0.71 seconds ahead of the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami and the Norwegian Ragnhild Mowinckel, who had set identical times. .
Gut-Behrami and Mowinckel did not start the slalom portion of the competition, however, preferring to use the first run to warm up for the women’s super-G scheduled for Wednesday. Italian downhill Olympic champion Sofia Goggia and two-time downhill world champion Ilka Štuhec also skipped the second round of the Alpine Combined.
Shiffrin had set the sixth fastest time in the first run, 0.96 seconds behind Brignone, but she missed the third gate before the finish line of the slalom portion and was disqualified.
The American was competing in her first major competition since being shut out in six events at the Beijing Olympics last winter.
Shiffrin has a collection of six world titles and 11 medals in total, all in his 13 starts at the Alpine Ski Worlds.
Slovak Petra Vlhová, who won silver in 2019 and 2021, took time off from this event to focus on giant slalom and slalom. The 2021 overall World Cup champion has been struggling with health issues in recent weeks.