CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Neither Ariane Raedler nor Katharina Huber have ever won a World Cup skiing race.<\/p>\n
Yet now they are Olympic champions.<\/p>\n
The Austrian duo won gold in the new team combined event at the Milan Cortina Games<\/a> on Tuesday when Mikaela Shiffrin<\/a> surprisingly crossed fourth after wasting a first-run lead by teammate Breezy Johnson<\/a>.<\/p>\n Shiffrin, the most successful World Cup racer of all time with a record 108 victories \u2014 71 of them in slalom, also a record \u2014 has now gone seven straight Olympic races without a medal.<\/p>\n After taking two golds and a silver from her first two Olympics, Shiffrin also didn\u2019t win a medal in any of her six races at the Beijing Games four years ago.<\/p>\n Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher of Germany earned silver and Paula Moltzan<\/a> and Jacqueline Wiles<\/a> of the U.S. took bronze.<\/p>\n \u201cNo tricks here at all,\u201d Shiffrin was told over team radio before her run on a course set by an Austrian coach. \u201cActually, it\u2019s nothing to report. You got it.\u201d<\/p>\n But Shiffrin lost time to the leaders at every checkpoint and crossed 0.31 seconds behind \u2014 missing a medal by finishing 0.06 behind the other American team. In the finish area, Johnson \u2014 who was coming off a gold in the individual downhill \u2014 embraced Shiffrin, while the Austrians and other podium finishers began celebrating.<\/p>\n The team combined consists of one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom run, with the times from the two added together to determine the results.<\/p>\n Shiffrin still has her individual events of giant slalom and slalom to come.<\/p>\n Raedler placed second in the downhill leg before Huber had the 10th-fastest slalom leg.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, it was sure that Mikaela could do it,\u201d Huber said. \u201cIn the end, it was really a surprise gold medal for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Aicher, one of the few all-around skiers competing in every event, also took silver in the individual downhill.<\/p>\n \u201cUsually, Mikaela is the best slalom skier, and we expected her to be super good in this slalom today, too,\u201d Weidle-Winkelmann said. \u201cBut this is also slalom. You never know.\u201d<\/p>\n Wiles, who was fourth in the downhill leg, and Moltzan, who had the fourth-fastest slalom leg, both earned their first Olympic medals.<\/p>\n Shiffrin was only 15th fastest in the slalom leg.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n