MILAN: US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin suffered more Winter Olympic heartbreak on Tuesday as Games chiefs banned a Ukrainian athlete from wearing a helmet depicting victims of the war with Russia.

America’s top team were firm favourites to win the women’s team combined event in Cortina d’Ampezzo after individual downhill champion Breezy Johnson topped the times in the morning’s downhill run.

But Shiffrin stuttered through the slalom — her specialist event — and the US pair finished in a disappointing fourth place, with Austrians Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber claiming gold.

Defeat will sting for 30-year-old Shiffrin, who is the most successful World Cup skier of all time and came into the Games in red-hot form.

The two-time Olympic gold medallist had a point to prove after a disastrous showing at the 2022 Beijing Games, where she failed to win a single medal.

But Shiffrin was a full second slower than Emma Aicher, whose session-leading time of 44.38sec gave Germany silver while another US pairing, Jacqueline Wiles and Paula Moltzan, took bronze.

Away from the slopes, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said it had banned Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych from wearing a helmet that features pictures of sportspeople killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but has allowed him to wear a black armband instead.

Gestures of a political nature during competition are forbidden under the Olympic charter, though athletes are permitted to express their views in press conferences and on social media.

IOC spokesperson Mark Adams said the helmet contravened guidelines but that it would “make an exception to the guidelines to allow him to wear a black armband during competition to make that commemoration”.

Heraskevych, who was one of Ukraine’s two flag bearers in the opening ceremony in Italy, said the decision to ban the helmet which he has worn in training for his event, “simply breaks my heart”.

He told AFP’s German partner SID that he saw nothing wrong with the headwear and intended to continue wearing it, despite the IOC ban.

Earlier on Tuesday, Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo added a seventh Olympic gold to his career haul, with victory in the men’s sprint classic. He won the skiathlon earlier.

Klaebo’s compatriot Birk Ruud won gold in the men’s freeski slopestyle, keeping his cool in an error-filled event at Livigno Snow Park. Norway top the medals table with six golds.

And red-faced Games organisers said athletes whose medals had broken could hand them in for repair after a string of embarrassing glitches.

Arianna Fontana, Italy’s most decorated Winter Olympian, led her team to gold in the mixed short track relay while in the mixed doubles curling competition, compatriots Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini saw out a tense 5-3 win over Britain to add the bronze medal to their tally.

Meanwhile, Netherlands speed skater Jutta Leerdam said the weight of expectation pushed her to deliver a “surreal” run and win the 1,000 metres gold.

On Monday, Kokomo Murase of Japan upgraded her bronze medal from four years ago to a gold, winning the women’s snowboarding big air contest by unleashing impressive aerial tricks high above the Italian Alps.

The 21-year-old held off challenges from Zoi Sadowski-Synnott of New Zealand, who claimed her second consecutive silver medal.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2026