Shiffrin says sharing gold with childhood friend Johnson ‘tops the list of any medal I’ve ever won’

SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria (AP) — Born 10 months apart, Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson have known each other since they were placed in the same room at a junior race when they were 11. According to Shiffrin, they were “a little bit lost in a world where young girls were not really supposed to be as ambitious as we were.”

Now both 29, Shiffrin is the sport’s most accomplished racer of all time and Johnson — until just a few days ago — was someone who had struggled to break through and realize her potential.

So you might think that when Johnson and Shiffrin were paired together in the new team combined race at the world championships that Shiffrin would be the one taking the role of leader.

Turns out it was Johnson, who had just won an unexpected gold medal in downhill.

That’s because Shiffrin didn’t really want to compete.

Struggling to overcome her “PTSD-esque” fears following a nasty crash on home snow in Killington, Vermont, in November, that left her with a deep puncture wound on the side of her abdomen, Shiffrin had to be convinced by Johnson to race — and their longtime friendship meant that Johnson had no qualms in reaching out.

“I haven’t felt like I wanted to be here,” Shiffrin said. “So to hear her talking about this like, ‘No, no, it’s fun,’ and she’s throwing herself down this downhill like fearless … She really lifted me up to be able to fully take on this day.”

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Take it on they did.

The new event entails one racer competing in a downhill run and another in a slalom run, with their times added together to determine the final results.

Johnson put Shiffrin in the perfect attacking position by placing fourth in the downhill and then Shiffrin cast aside her fears with a solid slalom run to secure gold for the American duo.

When Shiffrin took the lead with three skiers still to go, Johnson ran out into the finish area and embraced her teammate.

It was Johnson’s second gold in four days and Shiffrin’s 15th career medal at the worlds, matching the record set by German skier Christl Cranz in the 1930s.

“Thank you for a memory that tops the list of any medal I’ve ever won,” Shiffrin told Johnson.

So after all was said and done there was no more second-guessing the U.S. team’s selections for an event in which Lindsey Vonn had campaigned to race with Shiffrin in a skiing “dream team.”

Vonn, making a comeback at age 40, finished 16th with her partner, AJ Hurt.

Super-G bronze medalist Lauren Macuga led the downhill leg but Paula Moltzan, her partner on yet another American team, couldn’t maintain the lead — leaving them in fourth.

The silver medalists were Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener, Swiss skiers claiming their ninth and eighth medals, respectively, at the worlds. Super-G winner Stephanie Venier and Katharina Truppe of Austria took bronze.

Perhaps the most impressive achievement of the day belonged to Shiffrin, who showed the necessary grit 10 weeks after her crash caused severe trauma to her oblique muscles and left her insides draining out of a deep puncture wound on the side of her abdomen.

Initially, Shiffrin didn’t have the core strength to even rise out of a chair. A sneeze or a laugh brought on instant pain.

“The obliques are really important for skiing,” Johnson said. “It’s not your knee or your shoulder, it’s your freaking core. You need that.

“So to see her come back in two months when like all of mine have taken me years, this is super impressive in and of itself,” Johnson added. “She deserves it after everything that she’s been through.”

Added Shiffrin’s coach, Karin Harjo: “At any point in the last 10 weeks, we were just thinking about the next step, and hoping and praying that we could make the next step. … She’s incredible and brave and courageous every time we step out here so I’m blown away by her.”

Johnson has been on the comeback trail, too — from a series of injuries that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics and then a 14-month ban for missing three doping tests that expired two months ago.

“So many things had to happen in the last … how long it’s been since we were 11,” Shiffrin said. “In order for this to happen we needed a new event entirely.”

An event that will also make its Olympic debut during the Milan-Cortina Games, which will be held in exactly one year.

First, though, some more record breaking is likely from Shiffrin.

While she withdrew from Thursday’s giant slalom race because of her fears in that event, Shiffrin can break Cranz’s record in Saturday’s slalom. Then a week later, Shiffrin will have a chance at a record-extending and milestone 100th World Cup victory in Sestriere, Italy.

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Associated Press writer Eric Willemsen in Vienna contributed to this report.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing