American skier Mikaela Shiffrin wins gold in giant slalom at worlds

MERIBEL, France — American skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold medal in the women’s giant slalom at the world championships Thursday.

Shiffrin overcame a mistake near the end of the race to hold on to her first-run lead to beat Italian skier Federica Brignone by 0.12 seconds. Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway finished 0.22 seconds behind and took bronze.

“Yeah, that’s unbelievable,” Shiffrin said in a course-side interview. “I was so nervous, my God. Just ... I can’t believe it.”

French skier Tessa Worley, who was second after the opening run, slid on her inside ski and fell in her second run.

“This is not an easy position, with the home crowd favorite to ... I mean, thank you for cheering for me anyway,” Shiffrin said.

Shiffrin’s victory came a day after an unexpected split with longtime coach Mike Day.

Day left the team during the middle of the world championships after Shiffrin informed him that she planned to take a new direction with her staff at the end of the season.

It is Shiffrin’s seventh world title and 13th medal overall from 16 career world championship races. She is in second place behind German skier Christl Cranz on the all-time list for the most individual medals won by a woman at the worlds. Cranz won 15 medals in the 1930s.

Shiffrin was the 2018 Olympic champion and won five of the last six giant slaloms on the World Cup circuit.

The victory makes her only the fourth female skier to win world titles in four different disciplines.

Shiffrin didn’t finish her opening event at the worlds last week when she straddled a gate in the slalom portion of the combined. She won silver in the super-G two days later.

Shiffrin is competing in her first major event since not winning a medal in six starts at last year’s Beijing Olympics. Her last race at the worlds is the slalom Saturday.