{"id":470594,"date":"2026-02-15T19:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/470594\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T19:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T19:22:08","slug":"brignone-wins-olympic-giant-slalom-for-2nd-gold-in-4-days-shiffrin-finishes-11th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/470594\/","title":{"rendered":"Brignone wins Olympic giant slalom for 2nd gold in 4 days, Shiffrin finishes 11th"},"content":{"rendered":"

CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Federica Brignone was taking in the magnitude of winning a second gold of her home Winter Olympics<\/a> when the two silver-medalists approached the Italian skiing star in the finish area, dropped to their knees and bowed toward her.<\/p>\n

Call her the Queen of the Dolomites.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old Brignone couldn\u2019t walk for three months early last year. Now she is a double Olympic champion<\/a> after winning the giant slalom with some ease on Sunday, barely 72 hours after powering to a super-G title that she felt was like something out of a Hollywood movie.<\/p>\n

She delivered quite the sequel, taking a lead of 0.34 seconds after the first run and then putting in a clean second run in gorgeous conditions amid the jagged peaks of the Dolomite mountains above Cortina.<\/p>\n

Brignone finished 0.62 seconds ahead of defending champion Sara Hector of Sweden and Thea Louise Stjernesund of Norway, who shared the silver medal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was almost too calm,\u201d Brignone said, “… I thought I had a so-so run and when I reached the finish and saw that I was first, I just heard screams and it was just crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her beaten rivals \u2014 and they included U.S. standout Mikaela Shiffrin, who finished down in 11th place \u2014 were in awe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was, like, the greatest show of GS skiing that we\u2019ve had in a really long time,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cAnd to do it, you know, at the Olympics where people actually have eyes on the sport. Federica skied incredible. That was so cool to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t so joyous for Shiffrin.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"United<\/p>\n

United States\u2019 Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course, during an alpine ski, women\u2019s giant slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

United States\u2019 Mikaela Shiffrin speeds down the course, during an alpine ski, women\u2019s giant slalom race, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d\u2019Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026. (AP Photo\/Robert F. Bukaty)<\/p>\n

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The American didn\u2019t quite have the speed of Brignone or a number of her rivals in either run on a fairly flat course set by her own head coach, Karin Harjo, and ended 0.92 seconds off the lead. She has now failed to win a medal in eight straight Olympic races since the Winter Games in 2018.<\/p>\n

Finishing just 0.30 seconds off second place suggested, however, there might be more to come from Shiffrin and redemption for perhaps the greatest ever Alpine skier might arrive in her best event \u2014 the slalom \u2014 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be here now, like, within touch of the fastest women, that\u2019s huge for me,\u201d Shiffrin said. \u201cSo I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Shiffrin smiled and waved to the fans in the grandstand with both hands after her second run when she already knew she\u2019d be out of the medals, not showing any outward signs of disappointment. <\/p>\n

By that time, the locals were waiting for Brignone to come down the sun-kissed Olympia delle Tofane course for a second gold in four days.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Italy's<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

She didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

It completes a stunning comeback for the popular Brignone, who was world champion in the GS<\/a> in February last year before breaking multiple bones in her left leg<\/a> in March that required surgery, a handful of screws and a metal plate to repair, and left her unable to walk until the summer. Heck, she only returned to racing barely a month ago.<\/p>\n

A day doesn\u2019t go by when Brignone doesn\u2019t feel pain \u2014 \u201cI would exchange my two gold medals to come back and not have this injury,\u201d she said \u2014 yet she skied through it in a pair of runs her rivals couldn\u2019t find fault with.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the suggestion that we should bow to Fede,\u201d Stjernesund said of her post-race gesture to Brignone, \u201cnot only because of this gold she got but considering her gold in super-G, being back and being such a big part of our sport and such a big profile. It means a lot to give her that confirmation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before these home Games, Brignone had a silver and two bronzes at the Olympics. Now she has the big one \u2014 twice \u2014 and the loud home crowd lapped it up, chanting \u2018FE-de, FE-de, FE-de\u2019 during the medal ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is better than a dream,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

This story has been corrected in the summary and third paragraph to say Brignone also won the super-G title, not the downhill.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORTINA D\u2019AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Federica Brignone was taking in the magnitude of winning a second gold of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470595,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[190960,113110,172396,218509,213457,217154,45567,218507,200479,99,218508],"class_list":["post-470594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-alpine-skiing","tag-karin-harjo","tag-mikaela-shiffrin","tag-norway-olympic-team","tag-olympic-games","tag-sara-hector","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sports","tag-thea-louise-stjernesund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}