Marta Bassino beat Mikaela Shiffrin to win the women’s super-G on Wednesday and give Italy its second gold medal at the Alpine skiing world championships, with her American rival settling for silver.
Shiffrin led Bassino by three-tenths of a second at the second split but couldn’t match the Italian’s pace in the last part of the Roc de Fer course and finished second, 0.11 seconds behind.
Cornelia Huetter of Austria and Kajsa Vickhoff Lie of Norway both were 0.33 behind to share the bronze medal.
“I’m so happy with my run, and emotional, because I don’t really feel like I should be winning a medal in super-G right now. There are so many women so strong and so fast,” said Shiffrin. “There was one moment where I thought I lost everything but then I could keep it rolling until the finish.”
Shiffrin woke up to the news Wednesday that LeBron James had broken the NBA career scoring record, and the American skier drew inspiration from the accomplishment.
“I was thinking, ‘Wow, that’s cool for him.’ I wasn’t sure if it was a dream, though, so it’s good to know that it’s true,” Shiffrin said. “It’s another example of incredible accomplishments happening in sport that will continue to drive future generations to try to reset the boundaries, reset the records and keep pushing…
