Shiffrin out of the medals again, Klaebo wins another gold

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP):

Make that seven straight races without a medal for Mikaela Shiffrin at the Winter Olympics.

The American skiing standout was given the ideal platform to win the new team combined event after partner Breezy Johnson led the opening downhill leg yesterday.

Shiffrin was the last racer out in the slalom — the second leg of the event — and had the 15th-fastest time, dropping the US to fourth place and extending her Olympic slump that stretches back to 2022 when she didn’t win a medal in any of her six races at the Beijing Games.

Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria won gold, while Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles took bronze ahead of their more high-profile US teammates.

Olympic redemption will have to wait, then, for Shiffrin, who is the most successful World Cup racer of all time with a record 108 victories. She is set to compete in her core events of slalom and giant slalom later in the Milan Cortina Games as she looks to add to her two golds and a silver from her first two Olympics.

Johnson missed out on a second medal, having won the downhill on Sunday.

Don’t be surprised if Johannes Høsflot Klæbo soon holds the all-time record for gold medals at the Winter Games.

The Norwegian cross-country star powered to his second straight Olympic gold — and seventh of his career — by winning the men’s sprint. He was a comfortable 0.8 seconds ahead of Ben Ogden of the United States.

Klæbo moved to one gold behind three compatriots - Marit Bjørgen, Bjørn Dæhlie, and Ole Einar Bjørndalen- all of whom have retired with a record-tying eight. Bjørgen and Dæhlie were also cross-country skiers. Bjørndalen won his gold medals in biathlon, which combines cross-country skiing with shooting.

Klæbo can join them by winning the 10-kilometre freestyle on Friday. He already won the skiathlon on Sunday for his sixth gold.

In the women’s final, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden watched as the country swept the medals. Linn Svahn edged defending champion Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist was third.

It was an emotional day for Norway’s medal winners at the biathlon.

After winning the men’s 20-kilometre individual race, Johan-Olav Botn paid tribute to a teammate who died in the lead-up to the Olympics.

Botn pointed to the sky as he crossed the line in honour of Sivert Guttorm Bakken, who was found dead in his hotel room in Lavaze, Italy, in December.

Sturla Holm Laegreid won the bronze medal and then gave quite the post-race interview, revealing — while fighting back tears — in a live broadcast that he had been unfaithful to his girlfriend.

The golds for Botn and Klæbo took Norway to six overall — three more than any other nation so far.