Alpine skiing-Johnson on course for golden 'double double' in team combined

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 10 : Downhill champion Breezy Johnson was heading for a golden "double double" at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday after dominating the opening leg of the women's Alpine skiing team combined to set up U.S. partner Mikaela Shiffrin for the decisive slalom run.

Johnson and Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup skier of all time with a record 108 wins, are the world champions in the event and Johnson holds the world and Olympic downhill titles after winning Sunday's opening speed race.

Another gold, her second of the Games, would match last year's world championship double.  

Shiffrin, winner of seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season and with the crystal globe in the discipline secured, now has one run on the sparkling Olimpia delle Tofane piste between her and a first Olympic medal since Pyeongchang 2018.

The women's team combined event is being held for the first time at an Olympics. The U.S. has four pairs, based on performance.

"I'm super-happy," said Johnson, whose run got a big roar from the crowd. "It's both the most and the least pressure in skiing. It's crazy to kind of hold somebody else's Olympic dream and potentially (decide) if they can even start their slalom run.

"I know what Olympic dreams mean to people but it's also free (of pressure) because you just get to pass the torch off and somebody else gets to finish the job. You just kind of get to be a passenger on the amazing ride that is an Olympic race.

"It's like a double pressure but also half-pressure."   

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Johnson, who has never won a World Cup race, started 14th and set a time of one minute 36.59 seconds in glorious sunny conditions, 0.06 faster than Ariane Raedler for Austria's second