Swiss Gisin wins women's alpine skiing combined gold, Shiffrin fails again

YANQING: Switzerland's Michelle Gisin retained her Olympic title in the women's combined on Thursday (Feb 17) as American Mikaela Shiffrin yet again failed to finish.

Gisin won gold with a total time of 2:25.67, a comfortable 1.05 ahead of compatriot Wendy Holdener. Italy's Federica Brignone finished in the bronze medal position.

Shiffrin was a strong favourite, even after her ill-fated performances at these Games, but for the third time here had the letters DNF - Did Not Finish - next to her name.

She was well placed as fifth fastest after the morning's downhill leg but, returning to the Ice River course where she had skied out in both the giant slalom and slalom, Shiffrin missed a gate and incredibly skied off the course yet again.

"I didn’t make it to the finish again, and like 60 per cent of my DNF rate has happened at this Olympic Games," said the American who came into the Games as the star of the sport and the great American medal hope.

"I didn’t feel pressure there. I mean there is always pressure but I just felt loose and relaxed and like I knew my plan, focused and good skiing - I was doing it and it still didn’t work. That is what it is," she said.

The six-times world champion has had 47 World Cup victories in slalom but that experience has counted for precious little in Beijing.

"47 different times I had this feeling - the right balance of intensity, focus, the feeling I had on my skis - it always worked.

"It was always good, fast skiing but I never had an issue not finishing and especially not that early. So it is just a little bit of a mind-boggling event I guess".

Shiffrin won gold in giant slalom at Pyeongchang 2018 after winning the slalom title at Sochi 2014. She also claimed the silver medal in the combined