CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Italy's Federica Brignone completed a golden double on home snow at the Winter Olympics on Sunday, adding the giant slalom title to the super-G she won last Thursday, as U.S. Alpine ski great Mikaela Shiffrin again missed out on a medal.
Sweden's Sara Hector, champion at Beijing 2022, shared silver with Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund with the pair astonishingly clocking identical times in both runs in a race of fine margins.
Italy's Lara Della Mea finished fourth, missing out on the podium by an agonising 0.05 of a second with Austria's pre-race favourite Julia Scheib, the World Cup giant slalom leader, a further 0.02 behind in fifth.
Brignone, who returned to the Alpine ski World Cup only in January after a career-threatening leg injury, won by 0.62 of a second.
She dominated the first run in bright sunshine on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste and then took a safer approach with the medal beckoning.
'SUCH AN EASY RUN'
"It was such an easy run, because the snow was so easy," the 35-year-old, who now holds both the world and Olympic titles, said after setting a scorching first-run time while smooth and light on her skis.
"I was almost too calm," she said of the second run. "I was afraid of not being aggressive enough and I couldn't explain it.
"I thought I had done a so-so leg and when I crossed the line and I saw first, and heard only shouting, I could not understand anything. I just saw it as a ski race, as something not easy but just thinking of my skis."
No other female Italian Alpine skier has ever won two individual golds at the same Games. Brignone is now the oldest Olympic gold medallist in Alpine skiing as well as the oldest female medallist.
"I think if I was coming here to make gold medals, I would go home with no medals," she said of her mindset coming into the Games after such a long comeback battle and the lack of pressure on her as an underdog.
KNEELING SALUTE TO THE CHAMPION
Hector and Stjernesund saluted her on their knees, bowing to the "Tiger", and Brignone sang along to the national anthem as Italian flags waved from the stands.
"She has done an incredible journey and I am super proud of mine," said Hector.
"I just had the suggestion of we should bow to Fede, not only because of the gold that she got but also considering the gold she had in super-G and being back.
"Fede is such a big part of our sport and is such a big profile and important person... so it means a lot to give her that confirmation."
The Swede and Norwegian were tied on 1:03.97 in the first run and then each went down in 1:10.15 in the second.
The gap between the silver medallists and 18thplaced Austrian Nina Astner was less than a second, remarkably little at this level.
"I would love to race on the real slalom slope from the World Champs, because that's a real slalom slope. This is like a junior race slope. But that's life. We are at the Olympics and we take what we have to do,” said Switzerland's Camille Rast, second in the giant slalom World Cup standings.
Shiffrin, seventh after the first run of a discipline she has found challenging since a nasty crash in 2024, missed out on an Olympic medal again after finishing 11th on a course set by her coach but had no complaints.
The most successful skier in World Cup history, with a record 108 wins, has not won an Olympic medal since 2018 after drawing a blank in Beijing and now has just the slalom remaining to end that drought.
She will be favourite for that title, having won seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season.
(Additional reporting by Julien Pretot and Sara Rossi, editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Clare Fallon)
