Maze, 31, prevailed by .22 of a second combining downhill and slalom runs Monday. Austrians were second, third and fourth. Nicole Hosp, also 31, earned silver, just as she did in Sochi. Michaela Kirchgasser held off super-G champion Anna Fenninger for bronze. (full results here)
Maze skied the fastest morning downhill run and the fifth fastest afternoon slalom run. She added this title to her downhill gold and super-G silver from last week and celebrated with a cartwheel in the finish area.
“It was really a lot of pressure on me today,” Maze, who skis with the Slovenian national anthem’s words on her suit, said in a press conference. “I felt that I have to do this. It’s not easy to race like that. I was really nervous before the slalom.”
Maze, the World Cup overall leader who may retire after this season, is hoping to become the first woman to win five individual medals at a single World Championships. Only one man has done it — Norway’s Lasse Kjus in 1999.
“I’m more than halfway, so three is done, missing two more,” Maze told NBC Sports’ Carolyn Manno. “I hope I can do it, for sure. It’s not easy.”
What are Maze’s chances in the two remaining individual events? She’s slated for the giant slalom Thursday and the slalom Saturday.
In the giant slalom, Maze is ranked fifth in this season’s World Cup standings. But she dug out of a hole after placing 22nd in the season-opening giant slalom on Oct. 25 with finishes of fourth, first and seventh in the three most recent giant slaloms. She’s also the Sochi Olympic giant slalom champion.
In the slalom, Maze is ranked third in the World Cup standings with podium finishes in three of the six competitions this season. Slalom is the only discipline in which Maze has never won a World Championships medal.
The World Championships continue with the mixed-gender team event Tuesday. That will be Olympic slalom champion Mikaela Shiffrin‘s debut at these Worlds.
