American skier Shiffrin fails to finish first race at worlds

MERIBEL, France (AP) — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish the slalom portion of the women’s combined event Monday on the opening day of the world championships.

Shiffrin straddled the third last gate while appearing to be close to beating first-run leader Federica Brignone.

The American was trailing Brignone by 0.96 seconds after the super-G portion but had made up 0.88 of that difference before skiing out.

Shiffrin reacted with apparent open-mouthed astonishment before bending over her ski poles. She then went over to Brignone and embraced the Italian skier.

The combined event adds the results of a super-G run and a slalom run.

Shiffrin was competing in her first major event since failing to win a medal in six starts at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

Her next race at the worlds is the super-G on Wednesday.

Shiffrin was the defending champion in the combined event. She has won six world titles and 11 overall medals in total from 13 previous starts at world championships.

___

More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports