Shiffrin misses record world medal as Rast wins slalom
Camille Rast has beaten teammate Wendy Holdener as Switzerland took gold and silver in the women's slalom at the Alpine skiing world championships.
But all-time great Mikaela Shiffrin could only finish fifth on Saturday, missing out on what would have been the American's record-setting 16th career medal from the worlds.
She shares the best mark with German skier Christl Cranz, who won 15 medals in the 1930s.
Shiffrin had won a medal in slalom — including four gold — at all six previous world championships she competed in since 2013, but she still looked far from her best after her recent injury woes.
Rast held on to her first-run lead to beat Holdener by 0.46 seconds.
"Everything must fit to win a world title and today that was the case," Rast told Austrian TV. "We have a cool team spirit and push each other forward."
Rast was competing at her fifth worlds and celebrated her first medal, after she took gold in slalom at the 2017 junior world championships.
Rast also leads the slalom season standings after grabbing the first two World Cup wins of her career.
Holdener posted the fastest second-run time to improve from fourth and earn her third silver medal at the worlds, after finishing runner-up in the team combined with Lara Gut-Behrami and in the mixed-team parallel event last week.
Katharina Liensberger was 1.32 seconds behind in third for the bronze.
Shiffrin had been third after the opening run, 0.72 behind Rast.
"I think that was some of the best skiing I've done lately," said the American star after the first run.
Shiffrin has eight gold, four silver and three bronze medals from her 19 races at the worlds since 2013.
She won gold with American teammate Breezy Johnson in the team combined on Tuesday but sat out the giant slalom two days later, saying she didn't feel ready to race GS after recovering from an abdominal injury sustained in a GS crash in Killington, Vermont in November.
"It was a big challenge to keep up with the pace, and for me especially on the end of the course," Shiffrin said. "It's like 15 seconds longer than anything I've skied since before Killington. I don't have very much in my legs left."
Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova didn't race as she's still recovering from knee surgery a year ago. The Slovakian standout told Austrian TV she had "no idea" when she might return to racing.
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