Ireland’s Anabelle Zurbay finished in 48th place in the giant slalom at the Winter Olympics today.
Italy’s Federica Brignone completed a spectacular golden double on home snow adding the giant slalom title to the super-G won last Thursday.
Zurbay recorded times of 1:12.82 and 1:18.88, for a combined 2:31.70.
That was 18.20 seconds behind Brignone’s winning performance of 2:13.50.
Olympic debutant Annabelle Zurbay successfully completes her second run in the women’s giant slalom at #milanocortina2026
Watch live on @rteplayerhttps://t.co/DgqkEuRwDK pic.twitter.com/0feP6rXiJh
— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) February 15, 2026
Asked if the she was feeling nerves beforehand, the 17-year-old said: “I kind of just put nerves into the course.
“I definitely was very nervous at the start of both of those runs. But once you are in the gate, you just got to clear your head and go because otherwise it’s not going to work.”
Zurbay, whose maternal grandmother is a McCarthy from Rosemount, just outside Westmeath, will return to action on Wednesday when she competes in the slalom.
Sweden’s Sara Hector, champion at Beijing 2022, shared silver with Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund with the pair clocking identical times in both runs.
Italy’s Lara Della Mea finished fourth, missing out on the podium by 0.05 of a second with Austria’s Julia Scheib a further 0.02 behind in fifth.
Brignone, who only returned to the Alpine ski World Cup in January after a career-threatening leg injury, won by 0.62 of a second, dominating the first run in bright sunshine on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste and then playing it safer.
“It was such an easy run, because the snow was so easy,” the 35-year-old said after the first run.
US Alpine ski great Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on an Olympic medal again after finishing 11th on a piste set by her coach.
Shiffrin, the most successful skier in World Cup history, has not won an Olympic medal since 2018 and now has just the slalom remaining to end that drought.
Additional reporting: Reuters