CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- Austria's Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber pulled off a stunning upset to claim Olympic gold in the women's alpine team combined on Tuesday, while favorites Mikaela Shiffrin and Sofia Goggia finished off the podium.
The Austrian duo, neither of whom had ever won a World Cup or reached the podium in World Championships and Olympic competition, delivered a combined time of 2:21.66 to secure the victory.
Their previous bests this season were individual seventh-place finishes, but the revamped Olympic program, which has replaced the mixed team parallel with a two-strong downhill and slalom relay, opened the door for the dark horses.
Raedler, 31, set the pace in the opening downhill leg with a blistering 1:36.65, trailing recent individual downhill champion Breezy Johnson of the United States by a mere 0.06 seconds.
"It was better than on Sunday (when she finished eighth in the women's downhill). I had three mistakes on Sunday. I watched the video yesterday with my coach and today I did these parts better," said Raedler.
"It's unbelievable. I was so nervous at the beginning of the day when Ariane had her run. I was also quite nervous when I was skiing," said Huber. "Now we are here, we are champions, and I don't know what to say."
American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who partnered with Johnson, posted only the 15th-fastest slalom time, a rare lapse that relegated the U.S. pair to fourth place.
Germany's Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher took silver, just 0.05 seconds behind the Austrians, while another American duo of Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan claimed bronze, 0.25 seconds off the pace.
Host nation Italy had a bad day. Following a disappointing men's team combined on Monday, Goggia's bid for a home-snow gold ended after a crash. The downhill bronze medalist slid out in the opening leg, automatically disqualifying teammate Lara Della Mea from the slalom.
"Surely I was not able to recreate the same mental mood of the downhill," said Goggia, the 2018 Olympic downhill champion. "I suffered a bit from the mental energy that I had to put in two days ago. I realized this at the start gate."
Goggia, who has battled numerous injuries throughout her career, noted that the "semi-fall" was at least not physically damaging.
"When you don't finish a downhill because you fall, you just have to be grateful that you are well," she said, adding that she felt "very sorry" for precluding Della Mea from the competition.
