Italian veteran Federica Brignone finished first in Sunday’s opening round of giant slalom to take pole position for the Milan-Cortina double gold medal, with Mikaela Shiffrin in the lead.
Brignone, the newly crowned Olympic super-G champion, flew down the slopes of Cortina d’Ampezzo in 1 minute 3.23 seconds, 0.34 seconds ahead of Germany’s Lena Duerr.
advertise
Brignone’s compatriot Gogia, the bronze medalist in the downhill event at this Olympics, is also in contention for another medal after finishing 0.46 seconds behind third.
Shiffrin trailed Brignault by just over a second after a conservative start and the second set began at 1230 GMT as she sought to end her Olympic medal misery.
The 30-year-old American entered the Olympics in hot form during the World Cup regular season, but a disappointing performance in the slalom event cost her and partner Breezy Johnson a chance at the podium.
Shiffrin failed to win a medal in six events at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and failed to even finish in three events, but over the next few years she established herself as an all-time best on the World Cup circuit with a record 108 wins.
advertise
Brignone made history by winning the super-G on Thursday, becoming the oldest ever Olympic gold medalist in alpine skiing, less than a year after breaking both legs in April 2025.
The 35-year-old also overtook Lindsey Vonn to become the oldest female medalist, a record she is likely to extend by a few days if she can win a 19th Olympic medal for host country Italy.
The country’s Olympic committee CONI said before the games that it was targeting 19 medals, one less than the previous record of 20 medals set in Lillehammer in 1994, when Italy won seven golds.
Italy currently has six of its 18 gold medals, ranking second in the medal table behind Norway.
TD/LP