CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Mikaela Shiffrin’s eight-year Olympic medal drought is over.
The American skiing standout put in two dominant runs to win the women’s slalom at the Winter Games on Wednesday by 1.50 seconds.
The race isn’t officially over yet, with dozens of lower-tier racers still to take the course. But Shiffrin is the leader after the fastest 30 skiers from the first run.
World champion Camille Rast was in silver medal position and Anna Swenn Larsson in third.
After delivering an exquisite second run to build on her 0.82-run lead from the morning, Shiffrin stopped in the finish area to take it all, slowly squatted and was embraced by the other medalists.
Then all the emotion came out: Shiffrin pumped her fists to the crowd and then was fighting back tears as she approached her mom and coach, Eileen.
Maybe it was a release of all the pressure on Shiffrin, for many the greatest Alpine skier of all time, who had failed to win an Olympic medal since a gold and silver in Pyeongchang in 2018.
A nightmarish 0-for-6 performance in Beijiing was followed in Cortina d’Ampezzo with an 11th place in the giant slalom and a fourth-place finish with Breezy Johnson in the team combined, in which Shiffrin placed 15th in the slalom portion.
Her first gold came in the slalom as a fresh-faced teenager in Sochi 12 years ago, so her Olympic journey has come full circle in her favorite event.
