Alpine skiing-Brignone completes golden double on home snow

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 15 : Italy's Federica Brignone completed a spectacular golden double on home snow at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, adding the giant slalom title to the super-G won last Thursday.

Sweden's Sara Hector, champion at Beijing 2022, shared silver with Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund with the pair clocking identical times in both runs.

Italy's Lara Della Mea finished fourth, missing out on the podium by 0.05 of a second with Austria's Julia Scheib a further 0.02 behind in fifth.

Brignone, who only returned to the Alpine ski World Cup in January after a career-threatening leg injury, won by 0.62 of a second, dominating the first run in bright sunshine on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste and then playing it safer.

"It was such an easy run, because the snow was so easy," the 35-year-old said after the first run.

U.S. Alpine ski great Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on an Olympic medal again after finishing 11th on a piste set by her coach.

Shiffrin, the most successful skier in World Cup history, has not won an Olympic medal since 2018 and now has just the slalom remaining to end that drought.