CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — The American team of Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan won the bronze medal in the inaugural Olympic women's Alpine team combined event, while favorites Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin missed the podium by six hundredths of a second.
The event pairs two skiers — one racing the downhill, the second racing the slalom — as a way to marry the two sides of competitive Alpine skiing, speed and technical.
The result was a surprise for Shiffrin, especially, who entered the Olympics as the season leader in the slalom, her best event. She has won seven World Cup slalom races this season and 71 in her career.
On Tuesday, in her first race of the 2026 Olympics, Shiffrin was set up for a medal thanks to a first-place downhill leg by her teammate Johnson, who won the gold medal in the individual downhill event on Sunday.
But Shiffrin finished in 45.38, just the 15th fastest slalom time and a full second behind the fastest.
Shiffrin had come into the 2026 Olympics looking for a fresh start after missing out entirely from the podium across six events in Beijing. Tuesday's result adds to her Olympic disappointment.
The bronze medal is the first Olympic medal for both Moltzan, 31, and Wiles, 33. For Wiles, the podium was a welcome achievement after leaving the individual downhill Sunday in tears after finishing in fourth place.
Austria's Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber won gold with a combined time of 2:21.66. Germany's Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher won silver with a time of 2:21.71. Wiles and Moltzan finished a quarter of a second behind.
Shiffrin, 30, is the world's top slalom skier. This winter, she has won seven of eight World Cup slalom races (and placed second in the other), bringing her career World Cup win total to 108, the most of any skier all time, man or woman.
Shiffrin raced Tuesday alongside Breezy Johnson, the 30-year-old skier who won the Olympic downhill race on Sunday. On Tuesday morning, Johnson repeated as the fastest downhill skier, completing the course in 1:36.59, putting the pair in strong position for a medal.
American Jackie Wiles finished in 4th place in the downhill leg with a time of 1:37.04. Her teammate Paula Moltzan is currently sixth in the World Cup slalom standings.
Two other U.S. teams entered the event. Bella Wright missed a gate at the top of the downhill course — at the same place where fellow Team USA skier Lindsey Vonn crashed just two days earlier in the individual downhill race — and as a result, her teammate Nina O'Brien will not compete in the slalom. Keely Cashman finished the downhill in 21st place with a time of 1:39.91; her teammate A.J. Hurt will compete in the afternoon.
The team format has replaced the traditional individual combined event, as the speed and technical disciplines in skiing have diverged to the point where it has become rare for skiers to race in both. Tuesday's race is the Olympic debut of the new format.
"We had slalom skiers that looked like Bambi on ice in the downhill track and downhillers who looked like they needed a compass to get through the slalom course, and very few that could actually do both," said Johan Eliasch, president of the International Ski and Snowboard Foundation, known as FIS.
Shiffrin and Johnson won the team combined event at last year's World Championships in Hinterglemm, Austria, the first time the event was held at a major international skiing competition.
The 2026 Winter Games are the Olympic debut of the new format. On Tuesday, Eliasch called the results a "spectacular success."
"We have exactly what we want, which is the best athletes, the best format, in the best sport. So this is definitely here to stay," Eliasch said.
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