Mikaela Shiffrin remembers her late father after winning Olympic slalom gold

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Mikaela Shiffrin stood atop the Olympic podium, looking almost in disbelief at the gold medal around her neck.

The American skiing star hadn’t simply won a slalom race to end her eight-year medal drought at the Winter Games and underline her status as surely the greatest Alpine skier of all time.

She’d also won a battle with herself.

“It’s like,” Shiffrin said, before pausing, “… being born again.”

Racing in what she described as a “spiritual...