Mikaela Shiffrin set to ski for the first time in the Olympics in team combined event : NPR
The Team USA duo of Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships last year. Now they aim to repeat in the Olympic debut of the event in which the United States fields four teams.
Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images Europe
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Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom/Getty Images Europe
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Slalom star Mikaela Shiffrin is set to make her 2026 Olympic debut Tuesday in the women’s combined alpine team event in Cortina.
The event pairs two skiers – one participating in the downhill, the other in the slalom – to combine the two aspects of alpine ski racing, speed and technique.
Shiffrin, 30, is the best slalom skier in the world. This winter, she won seven of eight World Cup slalom races (and placed second in the other), bringing her career World Cup victory total to 108, the most of any skier ever, male or female.
Shiffrin will race Tuesday alongside Breezy Johnson, the 30-year-old skier who won the Olympic downhill on Sunday. The duo won the team combined event at last year’s World Championships in Hinterglemm, Austria, the first time the event had been held as part of a major international ski competition.
The team format replaced the traditional individual combined event as the speed and technique disciplines of skiing diverged to the point that it became rare for skiers to compete in both. Tuesday’s race marks the Olympic debut of the new format.
The U.S. women’s alpine ski team is so strong that the Americans will field three other teams in addition to Shiffrin and Johnson. Also expected to contend for a medal is the second team of alpine skier Jackie Wiles, who finished fourth in Sunday’s individual race, and slalom skier Paula Moltzan, currently sixth in the World Cup slalom standings.
Downhiller Bella Wright will ski with slalom skier Nina O’Brien, and the fourth team will include Keely Cashman in downhill and AJ Hurt in slalom.
