Mikaela Shiffrin is about to ski in an Olympic Games for the first time since 2018. It's happening Tuesday in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, in an event that didn't exist the last time she competed at the Winter Olympics.
The team combined format pairs two skiers — one racing downhill for pure speed, the other racing slalom for technical precision. It's a relatively recent invention, born from a simple reality: modern Alpine skiers have become so specialized that asking someone to excel at both disciplines has become nearly impossible. So instead of one person doing both, two people split the work.
Shiffrin will race slalom alongside Breezy Johnson, 30, who won the individual downhill on Sunday. The pair already has history with this event. Last year at the World Championships in Austria, they won the team combined — the first time the event was held at a major international competition. Now they're doing it again on the Olympic stage.
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Start Your News DetoxIt's worth pausing on what Shiffrin brings to this moment. She's the world's dominant slalom skier, winning seven of her last eight World Cup races this winter. Her career tally stands at 108 World Cup wins — more than any other skier, male or female, in history. At 30, she's not a rising prospect. She's the standard against which slalom is measured.
But she's also someone who stepped back from competition for years. She returned to racing in 2023 after taking time away, and this Olympic appearance represents a different kind of comeback — not just to the sport, but to the Olympic stage itself. The last time she raced in an Olympics was 2018 in Pyeongchang. Seven years is a long gap.
The American depth
The U.S. women's Alpine team is so stacked that they're fielding four separate teams for Tuesday's event. Beyond Shiffrin and Johnson, Jackie Wiles (who finished fourth in the individual downhill) will pair with slalom skier Paula Moltzan, currently sixth in the World Cup standings. Two other American teams round out the roster. That kind of depth means the U.S. has genuine medal chances across multiple pairings.
Tuesday's race also marks the Olympic debut of the team combined format itself — another first for an event that's still finding its footing in the competitive calendar. For Shiffrin, it's a chance to compete at the Olympics in a format that suits the modern reality of Alpine skiing, paired with a skier who's just proven she can win gold on the biggest stage.
