US star Shiffrin wins Olympic slalom gold

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

Shiffrin 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 1min 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.

She finished a whopping 1.50sec ahead of world champion Camille Rast who took the first medal of these 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.

Shiffrin has banished memories of both her last Olympics in Beijing — where she failed to pick up a single medal from six races and didn’t even finish three — and her disappointing displays in the team combined and giant slalom in northern Italy.

She came to Cortina as a red-hot favourite to claim at least one gold due to her sensational form this season which has taken her all-time record of World Cup wins to 108.

Shiffrin has already won the slalom title in the World Cup after coming out on top in seven of this season’s races, finishing just 0.14sec behind Rast in Kranjska Gora the one time she didn’t win.

Gold is a happy ending to a difficult Olympics for both Shiffrin and the US ski team, whose Games were dominated by Lindsey Vonn’s horror crash and leg break in the downhill race which opened proceedings in Cortina.