Mikaela Shiffrin’s gold rush begins with a bang

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — After three days of races postponed by strong winds, Mikaela Shiffrin’s celebrated quest for multiple gold medals at the Pyeongchang Olympics finally began Thursday with a stirring, authoritative, come-from-behind victory in the giant slalom.

Roaring down a steep and especially taxing racecourse, Shiffrin was both the most aggressive and most technically sound skier. Despite a minor miscue in the race’s final 50 yards, her two-run time of 2:20.02 was 0.39 seconds ahead of Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway. Italy’s Federica Brignone won the bronze medal.

“It’s more than another gold medal,” said Shiffrin, who joins Ted Ligety and Andrea Mead Lawrence as the only Americans to win two Alpine Olympic gold medals. “I knew I might win multiple medals at these Olympics but I also knew I could come away with nothing. Now I know that I’ve got one.”

But by winning in the giant slalom, which is her third-best event, Shiffrin has heightened her possibilities for at least three gold medals, which is the most any Alpine skier has won in any Olympics.

On Friday, she is set to defend her Olympic title in her strongest event, the slalom. Next week, she will be favored in the Alpine combined.

Shiffrin also indicated Thursday that she was planning to race in a fourth event next week, the downhill. Eileen Shiffrin, Mikaela’s mother and one of her coaches, said her daughter would not enter a fifth event, the super-G.

Leaving the gate in her first run Thursday morning, Shiffrin was by far the fastest in the opening segment of the racecourse. She lost some time in the middle of the course and rallied a bit at the end but still trailed first the round leader, Manuela Mölgg of Italy, by 0.20 seconds.

She predicted after the first run that she could go faster in the second run, and she did, especially in the first 40 seconds after she left the gate. She soon opened nearly a full second lead on the field. But within sight of the finish line, she skidded slightly and was knocked off-balance.

“I was not worried that I gave it away; I had just been a bit too aggressive,” Shiffrin said afterward.

Surging past the finish, Shiffrin looked to see her name atop the scoreboard.

“The most amazing, sweetest feeling,” she said.