'UNBELIEVABLE' FOR UNLEASHED SHIFFRIN

American takes first title since 2018 Games; Klaebo extends record to 10 Olympic golds

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United States star Mikaela Shiffrin skiing her way to the gold medal in the women's slalom at the Winter Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo on Feb 18. PHOTO: AFP

(AFP)

Mikaela Shiffrin won Olympic slalom gold on Feb 18 to end her eight-year Winter Games medal drought and bring some solace to the US ski team.

She claimed the third Olympic title of her career, and her first since giant slalom gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, with a rapid combined time of Imin 39.10sec.

The 30-year-old already had a lead of 0.82sec after a first run she said she “nailed” in glorious conditions and that handy cushion enabled her to cruise to victory at Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre.

She finished a whopping 1.50sec ahead of world champion Camille Rast, who took the first medal of these Milano-Cortina Games for the Swiss women’s ski team.

Sweden’s Anna Swenn Larsson rounded out the podium to claim the first Olympic medal of her career.

“Today I showed up for the skiing. I wanted to have two runs with really strong slalom skiing. Now to be through that is a little bit challenging to process,” said Shiffrin.

She added: “I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash. It’s not easy to do that, but I’ve been so focused every single day... Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable.”