Mikaela Shiffrin wins slalom Olympic gold medal at Winter Games 2026

Al Jazeera · Feb 18, 2026 · Collected from RSS

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American ski great clinches her fourth career Olympic medal, and her first since 2018, in the women’s slalom at Tofane.By AFPPublished On 18 Feb 2026Mikaela Shiffrin won Olympic slalom gold on Wednesday to end her eight-year Winter Games medal drought and bring some solace to the US ski team.Shiffrin claimed the third Olympic title of her career, and her first since giant slalom gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, with a rapid combined time of 1min 39.10sec.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Safety concerns resurface after Vonn’s skis didn’t release in Olympic crashlist 2 of 4Russian, Belarusian athletes to compete under own flag at Paralympics 2026list 3 of 4Mourinho, Benfica criticised after alleged racist abuse of Real’s Viniciuslist 4 of 4Ronda Rousey, Gina Carano end MMA retirements to fight in Mayend of listThe 30-year-old already had a lead of 0.82sec after a first run she said she “nailed” in glorious conditions, and that handy cushion enabled her to cruise to victory.She finished a whopping 1.50sec ahead of world champion Camille Rast, who took the first medal of these games for the Swiss women’s ski team.Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson rounded out the podium to claim the first Olympic medal of her career.Shiffrin, centre, celebrates winning gold in the slalom event alongside silver medalist Camille Rast of Team Switzerland, left, and bronze medalist Anna Swenn Larsson of Team Sweden [Mattia Ozbot/Getty Images]Shiffrin has banished memories of both her last Olympics in Beijing – where she failed to pick up a single medal from six races and did not even finish three – and her disappointing displays in the team combined and giant slalom in northern Italy.She came to Cortina as a red-hot favourite to claim at least one gold due to her sensational form this season, which has taken her all-time record of World Cup wins to 108.Shiffrin has already won the slalom title in the World Cup after coming out on top in seven of this season’s races, finishing just 0.14sec behind Rast in Kranjska Gora, the one time she did not win.Gold is a happy ending to a difficult Olympics for both Shiffrin and the US ski team, whose games were dominated by Lindsey Vonn’s horror crash and leg break in the downhill race, which opened proceedings in Cortina.Shiffrin’s victory is her second Olympic gold medal in the slalom and comes 12 years after she became the youngest winner of that Olympic event at the Sochi Games.Shiffrin competes during the Women’s Slalom final [Julian Finney/Getty Images]