Federica Brignone of Italy secured gold in the women's Alpine skiing giant slalom at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, adding to her super-G title from last Thursday. Sweden's Sara Hector and Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund shared silver after posting identical times in both runs. United States skier Mikaela Shiffrin finished 11th in the event.
The women's giant slalom took place on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, under bright sunshine. Federica Brignone, 35, dominated the first run and adopted a cautious approach in the second, winning by 0.62 seconds. She became the oldest Olympic gold medalist in Alpine skiing and the oldest female medalist overall. No other Italian female Alpine skier has won two individual golds at the same Games. Brignone, who returned to the World Cup in January after a leg injury, holds both world and Olympic titles in the discipline. She said, "It was such an easy run, because the snow was so easy. I was almost too calm. I was afraid of not being aggressive enough."
Sara Hector, the Beijing 2022 champion, and Thea Louise Stjernesund tied exactly in both runs, sharing silver in a rare occurrence. Italy's Lara Della Mea placed fourth, 0.05 seconds off the podium, while Austria's Julia Scheib, the World Cup leader, finished fifth, 0.02 seconds behind Della Mea.
Mikaela Shiffrin, seventh after the first run on a course set by her coach, ended 11th. The most successful skier in World Cup history with 108 wins, Shiffrin has no Olympic medal since 2018, having drawn a blank in Beijing. She has one event left, the slalom, where she is favored after winning seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season.
Brignone's victory contributed to Italy's record-setting Sunday, lifting their Winter Olympics medal total to 22 and surpassing the 1994 Lillehammer record. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni posted on X, "Hardly had we finished celebrating the Alpine skiing gold... Magnificent." Italy trails Norway's 26 medals and leads the United States with 17.
