Americans Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won the first team combined race in World Alpine Skiing Championships history as Shiffrin earned a record-tying 15th career world medal and modern era record-breaking eighth gold medal.
Johnson, who won the downhill world title last Saturday, had the fourth-fastest downhill run on Tuesday. Shiffrin was third-fastest in the slalom run in her second race since being sidelined two months following a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash.
They prevailed by 39 hundredths of a second over Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami and Wendy Holdener.
The team combined is making its world championships debut this year and its Olympic debut next year, replacing the individual combined. Nations field up to four pairs of one downhill skier and one slalom skier for one run each. Final standings are determined by combined times.
ALPINE SKIING WORLDS: Results | Broadcast Schedule
“Thank you for a memory that tops the list of any medal I’ve ever won,” Shiffrin, who previously won 14 medals in 17 individual race starts at worlds dating to 2013, told Johnson at a reception later Tuesday.
Shiffrin tied the all-time record with her 15th world championships medal. She already held the modern era record since worlds became a biennial event after World War II. In the 1930s, worlds were held annually.
Shiffrin also broke her tie for most golds in the modern era. She had been tied at seven with Toni Sailer, Marielle Goitschel, Anja Pärson and Marcel Hirscher.
Shiffrin raced for the second time since returning from tearing oblique muscles in a Nov. 30 giant slalom crash.
Just four days ago, a Shiffrin-Johnson pairing in the team combined would have been considered impossible from both skiers’ sides.
The U.S. pairings were determined by what U.S. Ski and Snowboard called “data-driven selection criteria,” including “matching the top downhill skier with the top slalom skier based off of season-best results, then moving down the list of athletes to create four potential teams.”
“I’m inspired by this event, actually, which is something a little bit unanticipated,” Shiffrin said on Peacock. “The vibe around it, teaming up and feeling like we’re doing it together was so cool.”
Shiffrin, the top U.S. slalom skier, originally planned to skip the team combined to prioritize training for Thursday’s giant slalom, which would have been her first GS since the Nov. 30 crash.
She announced Monday that she wasn’t ready to race the GS at worlds, citing mental obstacles to return to that discipline. That freed up time to enter the combined. Coaches said she would be paired with Johnson if she decided to race.
"(Breezy) was like, ‘Hey, it’s not for the medals,’” Shiffrin said. “‘Do it because this is crazy fun. Do it because you like skiing and because you want to be here.’ Since Courchevel (her first race back Jan. 30, a slalom) I’ve been saying, ‘It’s scary, but I want to be here.’ The last two weeks, I haven’t felt that a lot, and I haven’t felt like I wanted to be here. I felt like it’s too (expletive) terrifying.”
Shiffrin is expected to race Saturday’s slalom at worlds.
Johnson entered worlds ranked second among U.S. downhill skiers on this season’s World Cup behind Lauren Macuga.
On Saturday, she won the world title in the downhill — the first top-level race victory of her career — and ended up paired with Shiffrin three days later.
“Today was probably more pressure, just wanting to do something for somebody who has been such a huge part of my career,” Johnson said.
Shiffrin said that she and Johnson, both 29 years old, have raced together since age 11.
“When we met I had been told for years that my intensity and drive in the sport ‘intimidated the other kids,’ and that I needed to ‘calm down and take this less seriously,’” Johnson wrote about Shiffrin for Shiffrin’s birthday in 2020. “Then I roomed with a quiet girl named Mikaela. She was driven, serious, and hardworking, and no one could stop talking about her. I had always watched World Cup racers but when I saw you I suddenly realized what a mini World Cup racer looked like.”
The other U.S. pairs on Tuesday placed fourth (Macuga, who had the fastest downhill run, and Paula Moltzan), 10th (Jackie Wiles and Katie Hensien) and 16th (Lindsey Vonn and AJ Hurt).
Vonn placed 21st in the downhill run, 2.51 seconds behind Macuga, as she continues her comeback from a five-year retirement.
Vonn plans to retire for good after the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, should she make the team next winter, which would make the team combined her final world championships race.
Vonn will not race Thursday’s giant slalom and Saturday’s slalom as she keeps her focus on the speed events of downhill (where she was 15th last Saturday) and super-G (where she did not finish last Thursday after hooking an early gate with her arm).
Worlds continue Wednesday with the men’s team combined, live at 4 and 7:15 a.m. ET on Peacock.
FIS Alpine Skiing World Championships 2025 Results — Women’s Team Combined
Gold: Breezy Johnson/Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) -- 2:40.89
Silver: Lara Gut-Behrami/Wendy Holdener (SUI) -- +.39
Bronze: Stephanie Venier/Katharina Truppe (AUT) -- +.53
4. Lauren Macuga/Paula Moltzan (USA) -- +.64
5. Mirjam Puchner/Katharina Liensberger (AUT) -- +.69
6. Cornelia Huetter/Katharina Huber (AUT) -- +.75
7. Corinne Suter/Camille Rast (SUI) -- +.76
8. Nicol Delago/Marta Rossetti (ITA) -- +.93
9. Ilka Stuhec/Andreja Slokar (SLO) -- +1.08
10. Jackie Wiles/Katie Hensien (USA) -- +1.55
16. Lindsey Vonn/AJ Hurt (USA) -- +2.98
