Mikaela Shiffrin. Photo: Photosport
US ski great Mikaela Shiffrin won a record-equalling 15th career world championships medal when she and downhill champion Breezy Johnson struck gold in the new women's team combined event.
The gold was the eighth at a world championships for Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup skier of all time, and Johnson's second after winning last Saturday's speed race on Saalbach's Ulli Maier piste.
Shiffrin, who was skiing her first event at the Austrian resort after making a comeback from an injury sustained in November, has now taken gold at the last seven world championships.
German skier Christl Cranz won 15 medals, all of them individual, between 1934-39 when the championships were held annually but Shiffrin stands alone in the modern era.
"If we keep adding team events maybe we can get, I don't know, 32 for her or something," joked Johnson, who had set the fourth fastest downhill time before Shiffrin was third quickest in the slalom.
"She's such a legend. It's super-cool to be hitting my stride and she's just obviously been on hers for a decade or more.
"She said it was nerve-racking but it's super nerve-racking being Mikaela's team-mate. Nobody thinks she's going to be one that lets the team down."
Swiss silver
Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener took silver, 0.39 of a second slower, with Austria's Stephanie Venier and Katharina Truppe the bronze medallists.
The team combined, with each nation able to enter up to four pairs, was being held at a world championships for the first time and will feature at next year's Milan-Cortina Olympics. The men's event is on Wednesday.
Super-G bronze medallist Lauren Macuga had set the pace in the downhill for the USA 2 team but Paula Moltzan lost a swathe of time in the decisive slalom run and they finished fourth.
None of the top three from the downhill managed to stay in the medal positions, with Germany 1 plunging from second to 17th while Austria 1 went from third to fifth.
American Lindsey Vonn's hopes of a comeback medal at the age of 40 disappeared when she was 21st of 26 in the downhill, leaving USA 3 partner AJ Hurt an impossible task.
They finished 16th in what was Vonn's final race at Saalbach.
Vonn had hoped to team up with Shiffrin in a pairing that would have united the two most successful female World Cup skiers, but US team officials made the selection on the season's performances.
Johnson and Shiffrin had been competing together since youngsters and the victory brought their friendship full circle.
"I think if you would have told us when we met that we would team up to win a world championship medal, I don't think either of us would have believed it," Johnson said.
- Reuters
