Skiing, Brignone makes history: combined gold at the World Championships. The victory thanks to two perfect tests in superg and slalom

Federico Brignone makes history. The Aosta Valley wins the gold medal in combined at the Alpine Skiing World Championships Meribel-Courchevel, a feat that has never been successful in the history of Italy. The 32-year-old of the Carabinieri did the number both in sneaker, finishing in front of all with a good margin of advantage, especially on the slalom women, more dangerous in the second round. But Brignone was able to make the most of starting bib number one – with a perfect track – in narrow posts. And, except for a small flaw in the final part of the track, she was the protagonist of uanother impeccable test. It is no coincidence that a very strong slalomist like Switzerland Wendy Holdener (silver medalist and already twice world champion of the specialty) closed at 1″66 cents, recovering the pittance of 4 cents after the superg. On the third step of the podium, at 2″26, the Austrian Ricarda Haaser.

The only one, given how things had turned out, who could ruin the party in Brignone could have been the US champion, Mikaela Shiffrin. Started with a gap of 96 cents, Shiffrin was, three quarters of the way down, only 8 cents from the blue. But a few gates from the finish line, the American extended her trajectory, ending up forking the third from bottom post. Brignone debunked the world gold taboo: a Garmisch-Partenkirchenin 2011, had won silver in the giant slalom.