Olympics-Alpine skiing-Shiffrin lurks as Scheyer takes lead in combined

By Simon Evans

YANQING, China (Reuters) - Austria's Christine Scheyer was in pole position after the downhill leg of the women's combined on Thursday but American favourite Mikaela Shiffrin was within striking distance as she searches for her first medal of the Beijing Games.

Scheyer completed the downhill in 1:32.42, putting her one hundredth of a second ahead of Czech Ester Ledecka, who is searching for another Olympic double after winning gold again in snowboard's parallel giant slalom.

Shiffrin was fifth fastest in the speed event, 0.56 off the lead but the American will fancy her chances of making up that time in her preferred slalom.

The American, who is the reigning world champion in combined and took silver medal in the 2018 Winter Olympics, said she had used Italian downhiller Sofia Goggia's downhill skis but admitted she now had to overcome some mental hurdles for the slalom.

Shiffrin came into the Games as the leading technical skier of recent years but she dramatically failed to finish her first runs in both the slalom and the giant slalom and surprisingly remains without a medal in Beijing.

"It's nice to know I have some practice and certainly a lot of speed in slalom but I also have a little bit of, I don't know, I have to overcome the image that I am going to ski out on the fifth gate," she said, referring to the section that troubled her in both her exits.

"I am just trying to stay calm because I think I was doing pretty well with that this morning. Stay calm and have a good run at slalom.

"I am really excited to have another chance at racing on the rest of the tech track. That's going to be nice," she said.

The American then finished ninth in the super-G and 18th in the downhill but she is part of an