Olympics-Alpine skiing-Shiffrin borrows Goggia's skis for combined downhill

By Simon Evans

YANQING, China (Reuters) - American Mikaela Shiffrin borrowed Sofia Goggia's skis for the downhill leg of Thursday's combined competition at the Beijing Games and said she "almost started crying" at the message left by the Italian.

Goggia, who won downhill gold in Pyeongchang and earned silver behind Switzerland's Corinne Suter in Wednesday's downhill, shares the same ski manufacturer as the American.

Shiffrin is competing in every Alpine event at the Beijing Games but has yet to earn a medal and failed to finish in her specialist events - slalom and giant slalom.

The American said the skis were the same ones that Goggia has been using at Beijing and that in the starting hut she spotted a note placed on them.

"She actually wrote a small message on them, on a sticky note, I saw it in the start and I almost started crying, because it was 'You can Fly on these skis' or something," Shiffrin said.

"One thing that can you be sure about is that Sofia is winning ... she has incredible skis. I am thankful I was able to get a feeling on those and just trying to fly as best I could," the American said.

The U.S. Ski team later posted on Twitter a picture of Shiffrin with the skis and the note from Goggia that said 'Fly Mika, you can'.

Four years ago, Shiffrin's skis were used by Ester Ledecka of the Czech Republic when she won a surprise gold in the super-G.

The slalom leg of the combined event is scheduled for later on Thursday.

(Reporting by Simon Evans; Editing by Himani Sarkar)