Mikaela Shiffrin produced two sublime runs to win the women's slalom at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, taking gold by a commanding 1.50-second margin – the third-largest in Olympic history for the event. The American, who had not won an Olympic medal for eight years, became the first skier from her country to claim three alpine golds at the Games.
Leading by 0.82 seconds after a blistering first run, Shiffrin held her nerve in the second despite a brief wobble. After crossing the finish line, she shared a long, tearful hug with her mother and coach, Eileen. Her father, who died unexpectedly in 2020, was in her thoughts. “Everything in life that you do after you lose someone you love is like a new experience,” she said. “Maybe today was the first time that I could actually accept this reality.”
In snowboarding, Su Yiming delivered China's first gold of these Games, winning the men's slopestyle title on his 22nd birthday. His opening run score of 82.41 proved untouchable, with Japan's Taiga Hasegawa taking silver and American Jake Canter bronze. Su, tearful at the bottom of the course, said: “The emotions came and I just can't stop crying.”
China's golden day continued two hours later as Xu Mengtao, 35, defended her women's aerials title with a stunning final jump scored at 112.90, ahead of Australia's Danielle Scott and teammate Shao Qi.
On the curling sheets in Cortina, Bruce Mouat and Great Britain's men's team produced a 9-2 victory over the United States. Now facing a waiting game, they need other results to go their way in today's morning session. “We're doing a lot of good things, so we're just having to hope for other results to go our way now,” Mouat said.
