Gisin wins back-to-back Olympic combined, Shiffrin out again

BEIJING (AP) — Michelle Gisin’s second straight Olympic title in the Alpine combined lifted Switzerland’s ski team to new heights.

Gisin won Thursday’s two-leg race on the Ice River course, completing her slalom run shortly after Mikaela Shiffrin again skied off course. That gave the Swiss team a record fifth Alpine gold medal at the Beijing Games.

No country has even won so many Alpine events at one Winter Games.

Gisin beat Switzerland teammate Wendy Holdener by more than a second. Federica Brignone of Italy was third.

All three had already won medals in China. Gisin took bronze in the super-G, Holdener earned bronze in the slalom and Brignone won a silver in the giant slalom.

Switzerland’s other gold medalists were Corinne Suter in the women’s downhill, Lara Gut-Behrami in the women’s super-G, Marco Odermatt in the men’s giant slalom and Beat Feuz in the men’s downhill.

Shiffrin was fifth-fastest in the downhill portion of the race but the two-time Olympic champion went out without making it to the bottom in the slalom leg. The American won a silver medal in the combined four years ago.

Shiffrin has had a rough time on the slalom slope. She skied out in the giant slalom and the slalom — the two events she has previously won at the Olympics. She then finished ninth in the super-G and 18th in Tuesday’s downhill.

Ester Ledecka ended up in fourth place in her bid to win a back-to-back double.

The 2018 super-G champion became the first competitor to win gold in two different sports at the same Winter Games four years ago. She successfully defended her gold in snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom last week but missed out in both the super-G and the combined.

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