Italian veteran Brignone started her home Olympics by being one of her country’s flag bearers for the opening ceremony, and she made history on the piste by becoming the first Italian woman skier to win gold in two events at the same Games after triumphing in the giant slalom.
The 35-year-old was already the new Olympic super-G champion and her achievements in Cortina d’Ampezzo are all the more remarkable for her having barely recovered from a broken leg suffered 10 months ago.
She joins men’s skiing icon Alberto Tomba as the only other Italian to take double gold in the same Games, Tomba winning the slalom and giant slalom in Calgary in 1988.
“I’m so without words that I don’t really know what’s going on,” said an elated Brignone.
“Today I just felt so calm, maybe even too calm before the first run, and even in the second one I thought ‘how come (she felt this good)?’
“When I crossed the line all I heard was cheering and I just had no idea what was going on.”
Brignone delivered two super smooth runs in the giant slalom to finish 0.62sec ahead of joint silver medallists Sara Hector of Sweden and Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund, and become Olympic and world champion in her favoured discipline.
Her combined time of 2min 13.50sec gave Italy its 20th medal of this year’s Games, equalling the host nation’s best-ever haul at a Winter Olympics set in Lillehammer in 1994.
Italy’s Olympic committee Coni had targeted 19 medals, a mark which was reached with the country’s men’s cross-country ski team claiming bronze earlier on Friday.
Brignone’s triumph extended by three days her own record as the oldest gold medallist, man or woman, in the history of her sport, performing incredibly again in brilliant sunshine despite near-constant pain from her career-threatening injury.
She did it on a course which for the second run was set by Shiffrin’s coach Karin Harjo who pitched a slower, turn-heavy course in the hope of favouring her star charge.
But Shiffrin, who has an all-time women’s record of 22 giant slalom wins on the World Cup circuit, was again below par, seventh in the first run and 13th in the second to place 11th overall.
The 30-year-old hailed Brignone’s achievements, the American magnanimous and philosophical after another disappointing day following her underwhelming display in the team combined which cost her and Breezy Johnson a podium finish.
“It is very, very cool to see that,” said Shiffrin of Brignone.
“Her injury was so bad. The amount of rehab that she has been going through and pushing. The mentality that she has to trust sending it down the hill.
“I wish I could explain how impressive that is. The greatest giant slalom skier of this time is the Olympic gold medallist.”
Shiffrin now only has Wednesday’s slalom – her specialist discipline – in which she can bid to end her eight-year Olympic medal drought.
She left the 2022 Beijing Games without a single medal from six races, failing to even finish in three, but in the intervening years has established herself as the greatest of all time with a record 108 wins on the World Cup circuit.
Her last Olympic medal came with victory in the giant slalom during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. (AFP)
Edited by: Cecil Wong
