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| - Mikaela Shiffrin kept her cool in the slalom to claim gold in the alpine combined at the world championships on Monday for her second medal in Cortina d'Ampezzo, her sixth gold and a US record ninth medal overall. Shiffrin, who won bronze in last week's super-G proper, had sat in prime position to challenge for the podium after finishing third in the combined's opening super-G. The 25-year-old then gave a masterclass in slalom skiing to post a combined time of 2min 07.22sec over the two runs down the Olympia delle Tofane course. Slovakia's World Cup overall leader Petra Vlhova took silver, at 0.86sec, with the Swiss team nabbing a sixth medal of these champs as Michelle Gisin took bronze, a further three-hundredths adrift. The gold saw Shiffrin surpass former teammate Lindsey Vonn to become the most decorated US skier at world championships, having amassed nine medals: six gold (four in slalom, super-G 2019, combined 2021), one silver (giant slalom 2017) and two bronzes (giant slalom 2019, super-G 2021). Among her eight-medal haul, Vonn, now working as a commentator, had claimed two golds (downhill, super-G 2009), three silvers (downhill 2007, 2011, super-G 2007) and three bronzes (super-G 2015, downhill 2017, 2019). Shiffrin had to negotiate 58 turns with a 180-metre vertical drop down the slalom course, run in brilliant sunshine and perfect snow conditions. But there was high drama as a number of skiers, and potential podium-makers, failed to finish. First out of the gate for the slalom was Italian Federica Brignone, the quickest in the super-G and carrying the expectations of a host country that has yet to win a medal on home snow. Brignone, who is currently the active skier to have claimed most World Cup combined wins, with five, lasted only seconds, badly negotiating the third gate and skiing out. Among six competitors who did not finish in the top 15 was double defending champion Wendy Holdener, the Swiss racer also coming a cropper at gate three. A sign of the podium's dominance over the rest of the field that did make it down was that fourth-placed Elena Curtoni of Italy finished a whopping 2.35sec off Shiffrin's pace. lp/gj
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