KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - Looking powerful and poised, 18-year-old Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's slalom here Friday, dominating the first run and hanging on in the second despite a mistake.
Marlies Schild and Kathrin Zettel of Austria won the silver and bronze. It was the second Alpine gold of the Sochi Games for the United States after Ted Ligety won the giant slalom Wednesday.
Shiffrin, the reigning world slalom champion and the race favorite, led Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany by 49-hundredths of a second after the first run, with Tina Maze of Slovenia in third, 67-hundredths of a second back. But Höfl-Riesch and Maze both skied poorly on their second runs, leaving Shiffrin with plenty of cushion for hers.
That was a good thing for her: she skied only the sixth best second run, making a big mistake in the middle section, probably caused by deteriorating snow. But her quick feet came to the rescue with an athletic move. It was enough to win by 53-hundredths of a second.
'That was pretty terrifying for me,' she said of the bobble. 'Because there I was like, 'All right, I'm going to go win my first medal,' and then in the middle of my run I was like, 'Guess not.' '
Several of the other top contenders had poor first runs.
Schild, the former world slalom champion, was 1.34 seconds behind Shiffrin's first-run time of 52.62, and Maria Pietilae-Holmner of Sweden missed an early gate and was disqualified. Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, second to Shiffrin in the World Cup slalom rankings this season, was 1.43 seconds behind. Bernadette Schild of Austria, Marlies's sister, had a quality run, and her time of 53.31 was good for fourth place, but she straddled a gate in her second run and did not finish.
Shiffrin said the course was set tighter than normal with gates 9 to 10 meters apart, when 10 to 11 meters would be more customary.
'That's not too tricky; it just means you have to move your feet quicker,' Shiffrin said after the first run. 'My plan was to try to move my feet faster than everyone else, and I guess I moved them five-tenths faster.'
According to Shiffrin's mother, Eileen, her daughter developed a head cold after Tuesday's giant slalom, in which she finished fifth. That race was contested in a cold, driving rain.
'But she looked in a good place when she went up to start the race,' Eileen Shiffrin said.
The second run was run under floodlights before a grandstand that seats 18,000.
'I like skiing under the lights,' Mikaela Shiffrin said. 'I think most of the girls do because it keeps the visibility really consistent. So these lights are really good.'
At 18, Shiffrin should find herself under the lights many more times.
'I've just got to keep going,' she said. 'To win an Olympic gold, it's something I'm going to chalk up as one of my most amazing experiences of my life. But my life's not over yet.'
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