Austria claimed gold in the inaugural Olympic women's team combined alpine skiing event on Tuesday, with Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber edging out Germany for the top spot. The United States secured bronze through Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan, while favorites Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin finished fourth. Shiffrin's 15th-place slalom run extended her medal drought to seven straight Olympic races.
The women's team combined alpine skiing made its Olympic debut at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games on February 10 at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. In this new format, teams consist of two skiers: one competing in downhill and the other in slalom, with combined times determining the results.
Austria's Ariane Raedler posted the second-fastest downhill time, followed by Katharina Huber's 10th-fastest slalom, for a winning combined time of 2:21.66. Germany's Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher took silver with 2:21.71, as Aicher led the slalom with 44.38 seconds. The U.S. duo of Wiles (fourth in downhill at 1:37.04) and Moltzan (fourth in slalom) earned bronze in 2:21.91, marking their first Olympic medals. Wiles, 33, became the oldest woman to medal in an Alpine event, while Moltzan, 31, called it "surreal."
The top U.S. team of Johnson and Shiffrin started strong with Johnson's fastest downhill of 1:36.59, but Shiffrin's slalom time of 45.38—15th out of 18 finishers—dropped them to fourth, 0.06 seconds behind bronze. Shiffrin, with a record 108 World Cup wins including 71 in slalom, has now gone seven Olympic races without a medal since Beijing 2022. "I'm gonna call it ‘sweetbitter,’ rather than bittersweet, because we got to watch our teammates get a medal, which is incredible," Shiffrin said.
Huber noted, "For me, it was sure that Mikaela could do it. In the end, it was really a surprise gold medal for us." Eight slalom racers did not finish, including Italy's Martina Peterlini and Sofia Goggia's team after her downhill DNF. FIS president Johan Eliasch praised the format as a "spectacular success," here to stay.
Shiffrin has giant slalom and slalom ahead, while Johnson eyes super-G.
