Italy's Federica Brignone claimed her second gold medal of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics by winning the women's giant slalom in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The 35-year-old skier finished in 2 minutes, 13.50 seconds, beating Sweden's Sara Hector and Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund, who shared silver at 2:14.12. American Mikaela Shiffrin placed 11th, extending her Olympic medal drought.
Under clear blue skies at the Olympia delle Tofane slope, Federica Brignone delivered a commanding performance in the women's giant slalom on February 15, 2026. Starting 14th in the morning run, Brignone clocked 1:03.23, building a lead of 0.74 seconds. In the afternoon, she maintained control through turns and jumps, securing victory by 0.62 seconds overall. This marks her second gold in four days, following her super-G win on February 12, and makes her the oldest Olympic alpine skiing gold medalist in history.
Brignone's triumph is remarkable given her recovery from a severe injury in April 2025, when she suffered fractures and a torn ACL in her left leg during the Italian championships. Unable to walk for months and returning to competition just a month before the Games, she said, "My mantra was ‘tomorrow is better for sure.' For five months, I didn’t even walk correctly." Despite ongoing pain, she skied flawlessly, prompting silver medalists Hector and Stjernesund to bow in respect at the finish. Hector, the 2022 champion, and Stjernesund matched times in both runs, but no bronze was awarded due to the tie.
Mikaela Shiffrin, the World Cup overall leader with a record 108 wins, finished 11th, 0.92 seconds behind Brignone. Struggling since a 2024 crash in Killington that caused abdominal injury and PTSD, Shiffrin said, "I wish I could explain how impressive that is. The fact that she was able to get there just in time to be the super-G and GS gold medalist is just impressive and incredible." Her team combined event last week also missed medals, marking eight straight Olympic events without a podium since 2018. Shiffrin's final chance comes in the slalom on February 18.
The course featured winds, bends, and blind gates, with the afternoon run slower at about 70 seconds versus 63 in the morning. Brignone's win boosts Italy to eight golds, second behind Norway's 12.