By Simon Evans
YANQING, China (Reuters) -Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin retained her Olympic title in the women’s combined on Thursday as American Mikaela Shiffrin yet again failed to finish.
Gisin won the gold medal with a total time of 2:25.67, a comfortable 1.05 ahead of compatriot Wendy Holdener. Italy’s Federica Brignone finished in the bronze medal position.
The victory was the fifth gold for the Swiss team at these Games and the second medal for both Gisin and Holdener.
Gisin, the combined winner at Pyeongchang 2018, won bronze in super-G here while Holdener finished third in slalom.
Shiffrin was a heavy favourite to win gold in the event and was well placed after finishing fifth fastest in the morning’s downhill leg.
But returning to the Ice River course, where she had skied out in both the giant slalom and slalom, her favourite events, Shiffrin missed a gate and incredibly skied off the course yet again.
Six-times world champion, Shiffrin won gold in giant slalom in Pyeongchang after winning the slalom title at Sochi in 2014. She also claimed the silver medal in the combined four years ago at the Olympics in South Korea.
She has competed in every individual event in Beijing but was only able to complete the speed events, finishing ninth in the super-G and 18th in the downhill.
(Reporting by Simon Evans, additional reporting by Simon Jennings; Editing by Ken Ferris)
