Mikaela Shiffrin, widely regarded as the greatest Alpine skier of all time, suffered another heartbreaking setback at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics on Tuesday, finishing fourth in the inaugural women’s team combined event alongside teammate Breezy Johnson.
The American duo entered the race as heavy favorites. Johnson, fresh off her gold medal in the individual women’s downhill, delivered a masterful first leg, posting the fastest downhill time of 1:36.59 and giving Shiffrin a narrow 0.06-second lead over Austria’s Ariane Raedler. Shiffrin, the dominant force in slalom with seven World Cup wins this season alone and a record 108 career victories overall, was expected to seal the deal in the slalom run.
Instead, tension marked her performance. Shiffrin struggled throughout the second leg, losing time at every checkpoint and finishing with the 15th-fastest slalom time out of the 18 competitors who completed the course (45.38 seconds). The combined time for Johnson and Shiffrin settled at 2:21.97—exactly 0.06 seconds behind fellow Americans Jacqueline “Jackie” Wiles and Paula Moltzan, who claimed bronze with a time of 2:21.91.
Gold went to Austria’s Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber (2:21.66), with Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher taking silver (2:21.71) in a razor-thin margin race.
Post-race, an emotional Shiffrin praised her teammates while acknowledging her own disappointment. “There’s no specific excuse… I didn’t get my comfort level, and I need to do whatever I can in the next training days to regain that for the upcoming races,” she said. She singled out Wiles and Moltzan for their bronze performance, calling it a proud moment for Team USA despite the personal sting.
The result extends Shiffrin’s Olympic medal drought to eight years. Her last podium appearance came at PyeongChang 2018, where she earned gold in giant slalom and silver in the combined. Beijing 2022 proved disastrous, with no medals across her events. Now, at age 30, the Colorado native faces mounting pressure in her signature disciplines: giant slalom on February 15 and slalom on February 18, both on the Tofane course described by teammate Paula Moltzan as moderate terrain that demands consistent effort rather than explosive sections.
Despite the setback, Shiffrin’s credentials remain unmatched. She holds the all-time World Cup record with 108 wins (surpassing Ingemar Stenmark’s 86 and Lindsey Vonn’s 84), boasts a 55.7% podium rate across 298 starts, and has medaled in 15 of 19 World Championship events (including eight golds). At the Olympics, however, her record shows only three podiums (two golds, one silver) in 12 starts.
Shiffrin has been training intensely on similar slopes, including Col Druscié—where she claimed multiple medals at the 2021 World Championships—to rebuild confidence and technique. Analysts note that her recent return to giant slalom form after a serious injury 15 months ago positions her as a legitimate medal threat in both remaining events.
With the technical races approaching, the question looms large: Can the undisputed GOAT of Alpine skiing finally break through the Olympic barrier and add to her legacy before the Milano Cortina Games conclude? The skiing world—and millions of fans—will be watching closely as Shiffrin seeks to turn heartbreak into triumph on the iconic Italian slopes.
