Shiffrin fails to finish race for first time in nearly two years

Edwards’ Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish a World Cup race for the first time in nearly two years on Sunday when she skied out in the morning super-G portion of an alpine combined won by Italy’s Federica Brignone.

In picking up her 12^th career victory, Brignone jumped over Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova into second place behind Shiffrin in the overall World Cup chase.

Vlhova crashed in Sunday’s super-G portion of the combined event in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, but appeared to be unhurt.

After a record 17 victories last season, Shiffrin has cooled off a bit this season with “just” four wins so far. She swept a weekend of races in Lienz, Austria, to end 2019, but is winless so far in 2020, including finishing second to Vlhova by more than a second in Croatia.

Shiffrin also finished an uncharacteristic 17^th in a giant slalom in Courchevel, France, in December and suffered a training crash ahead of the Croatia race.

Adversity aside, Shiffrin still leads the chase for what would be her American record fourth straight overall globe by 261 points over Brignone. Shiffrin has 826 points to 565 for Brignone.

In Sunday’s alpine combined (one run of super-G and one run of slalom), Shiffrin skied out in the super-G portion, which is not her strength.

“Shiffrin slid out on her left hip when struggling to make a sharp turn needing to put pressure on the icy snow with her right ski,” according to the Associated Press. “Seconds earlier, the bumpy surface knocked her right ski offline and forced her upright to regain balance.”

AP also reported that several of the World Cup leaders also struggled on the icy, bumpy course.