Shiffrin out of the medals again at the Winter Olympics as Klæbo closes on record for golds

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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Make that seven straight races without a medal for Mikaela Shiffrin at the Winter Olympics.

The American skiing standout was given the ideal platform to win the new team combined event after partner Breezy Johnson led the opening downhill leg on Tuesday.

Shiffrin was the last racer out in the slalom — the second leg of the event — and was 15th, dropping the U.S. to fourth place and extending her Olympic slump that stretches back to 2022 when she didn’t win a medal in any of her six races at the Beijing Games.

Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber of Austria won gold, while Paula Moltzan and Jacqueline Wiles took bronze ahead of their more high-profile U.S. teammates.

Olympic redemption will have to wait, then, for Shiffrin, who is the most successful World Cup racer of all time with a record 108 victories. She is set to compete in her core events of slalom and giant slalom later in the Milan Cortina Games as she looks to add to her two golds and a silver from her first two Olympics.

Johnson missed out on a second medal of these Games, having won the downhill on Sunday.

Don't be surprised if Johannes Høsflot Klæbo soon holds the all-time record for gold medals at the Winter Games.

The Norwegian cross-country star powered to his second straight Olympic gold — and seventh of his career — by winning the men’s sprint. He was a comfortable 0.8 seconds ahead of Ben Ogden of the United States.

Klæbo moved to one gold behind three compatriots: Marit Bjørgen, Bjørn Dæhlie and Ole Einar Bjørndalen, all of whom have retired with a record-tying eight. Bjørgen and Dæhlie also were cross-country skiers.

Klæbo can join them by winning the 10 kilometers freestyle on Friday. He already won the skiathlon on Sunday for his sixth gold.

In the women's final, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden watched on as the country swept the medals. Linn Svahn edged defending champion Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist was third.

Johan-Olav Botn paid tribute to a Norway teammate who died in the lead-up to the Games, after winning the men’s 20-kilometer individual biathlon.

As he crossed the finish line, Botn pointed to the sky in a tribute to Sivert Guttorm Bakken, who was found dead in his hotel room in Lavazè, Italy, in December.

The golds for Botn and Klæbo took Norway to six — three more than any other nation so far.

Twenty years later, Italian short track speedskater Arianna Fontana is still winning medals at the Winter Olympics.

The latest was a gold in the mixed team relay. That took her to three golds and 12 medals overall in an Olympic career that started in 2006 — when she was age 15 — at the Winter Games in Turin.

Fontana was already the most decorated short track speedskater of all time and there's chances for more medals in the 500 and the 3,000 relay at these Olympics.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics