Federica Brignone. Photo: GEPA pictures

MERIBEL, France — On the opening day of the world championships, Italian skier Federica Brignone won the women’s combined race after defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin skied out near the end of her slalom run.

The sun had dropped below the mountain by the start of the women’s combined slalom run. Unlike a prepared slalom hill, the snow was compact but soft. Notably, only 20 women participated in the afternoon slalom. Starting fourth in the final run, Mikaela Shiffrin did the unexpected; she straddled and disqualified two gates from the finish. The fastest from the super-G Italian, Federica Brignone earned gold. Also, after finishing 15th in the super-G, Wendy Holdener skied well in the slalom to finish second in the combined. Exciting for Austria, their racer Ricarda Haaser took bronze.

This represents Brignone’s career-first World Championship victory. She also became the first Italian woman to win the world championship alpine combined. Beyond that, at 33 years old, she is the oldest woman to win at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. Surprisingly, the accomplished Italian skier had only one prior world championship podium in 2011.

I am so happy and grateful for today,” Brignone said. “It was an amazing day. I did two really good runs, also super-G and then slalom. What’s missing in my career was a gold medal and I’m so, so excited and so happy about today.”

The Italian said she arrived at the worlds relaxed.

“I’m skiing well. I came here like really no stress and I said: ‘I can enjoy,’” Brignone added.

Switzerland’s two-time combined Olympic medalist, Wendy Holdener, moved up 13 positions during the slalom to finish second. Holdener has two World Cup slalom victories this season. She delivered the fastest slalom run but fell (+1.62) short of overtaking Brignone.

Austria’s 29-year-old Ricarda Haaser earned her career’s first individual elite-level podium. The Austrian women have struggled to be their best all season, but they start the 2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships with a podium.

Shiffrin seemed to be on her way to beating Brignone but the American straddled the third-to-last gate. She trailed Brignone by 0.96 seconds after the super-G portion of the race but had made up 0.88 of that difference before skiing out.

The best North American today was Canadian Marie-Michele Gagnon in 10th. She is joined in the top 15 by USA’s Isabella Wright in 13th and her Canadian teammate Valerie Grenier in 14th. 18 women completed the race.

Analysis of the fastest three, North Americans and the alpine combined results

Results of the women’s Alpine Combined

The Associated Press contributed to this report.