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History-maker Brignone completes Olympic fairy tale as Shiffrin's medal misery continues / Photo: © AFP
History-maker Brignone completes Olympic fairy tale as Shiffrin's medal misery continues
Federica Brignone completed a Winter Olympic fairy tale on Sunday after claiming her second gold of the Milan-Cortina Games, as out-of-sorts Mikaela Shiffrin again missed out on the medals.
Italian veteran Brignone started her home Olympics by being one of her country's flag bearers for the opening ceremony, and she made history on the piste by becoming the first Italian woman skier to win gold in two events at the same Games.
The 35-year-old was already the new super-G champion and her achievements in Cortina d'Ampezzo are all the more remarkable for her having barely recovered from a broken leg suffered 10 months ago.
She delivered two super smooth runs in the giant slalom to finish 0.62sec ahead of joint silver medallists Sara Hector of Sweden and Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund to become Olympic and world champion in her favoured discipline.
"I'm so without words that I don't really know what's going on," said an elated Brignone.
"Today I just felt so calm, maybe even too calm before the first run, and even in the second one I thought 'how come (she felt this good)?'.
"When I crossed the line all I heard was cheering and I just had no idea what was going on."
Brignone's combined time of 2min 13.50sec gave Italy its 20th medal of this year's Games, equalling the host nation's best-ever haul at a Winter Olympics set in Lillehammer in 1994.
Her triumph came on a course which for the second run was set by Shiffrin's coach Karin Harjo, who pitched a slower, turn-heavy course in the hope of favouring her star charge.
But Shiffrin, who has an all-time women's record of 22 giant slalom wins on the World Cup circuit, was again below par, seventh in the first run and 13th in the second to place 11th overall.
The 30-year-old now only has Wednesday's slalom -- her specialist discipline -- in which she can bid to end her eight-year Olympic medal drought.
Shiffrin left the 2022 Beijing Games without a single medal from six races, failing to even finish in three, but in the intervening years has established herself as the greatest of all time with a record 108 wins on the World Cup circuit.
Her last Olympic medal came with victory in the giant slalom during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
C.Lewis--SFF
