Shiffrin pairs with Johnson for 15th Worlds medal
Shiffrin and Johnson are long-time friends and rivals
- Published
American skier Mikaela Shiffrin clinched a record-equalling 15th World Championship medal as she and Breezy Johnson won gold in the inaugural team combined event in Saalbach.
The event, which will make its Olympic debut next year in Italy, sees one skier compete in a downhill, followed by their team-mate in a slalom.
Johnson, 29, who won the downhill on Saturday just weeks after returning from a 14-month ban for three anti-doping whereabouts failures, was fourth quickest in the opening run in Austria.
Shiffrin, also 29, the winner of 99 World Cup golds over her career, was then third fastest in the slalom to leave the US pair on top of the leaderboard with a combined time of two minutes 40.89 seconds.
"So many things had to happen since how long it has been since we were 11," Shiffrin said of her long relationship as a competitor and friend to Johnson.
"We needed a new event entirely. It's amazing for me. Bree did so well this morning, like she has been recently executing day in day out."
It is an eighth World Championship gold for Shiffrin who emulates German skier Christl Cranz with her medals haul.
Cranz won 15 individual medals between 1934 and 1939 when the championships were held annually, but Shiffrin has set the standard in the modern era.
Switzerland took silver with Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener, who clocked the fastest slalom, finishing 0.39 seconds behind Shiffrin and Johnson in 2:41.28 while Austria's Stephanie Venier and Katharina Truppe were third in 2:41.42.
Shiffrin had been a doubt for the Worlds after she sustained an abdominal puncture wound in a crash in Killington in November which kept her out for two months.
She only returned at the night slalom in Courcheval last month and said she would not defend her giant slalom title later this week because of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Shiffrin also initially said she would not race in the combined event after Lindsey Vonn, who recently came out of retirement after 82 World Cup wins, pitched the idea of the pair racing together.
But the US federation took the decision to base the team match-ups on current rankings, meaning Shiffrin was paired with Johnson while Vonn raced with AJ Hurt, with the pair finishing 16th.