18 year old U.S. skier Mikaela Shiffrin won the gold in women’s slalom at the Olympics on Friday. She made history by becoming the youngest women to win the women’s slalom in the history of the Winter Games.
In her first fun, Shiffrin was mistake free and picked up time at every split. She finished in 52.62 seconds, which knocked Germany’s Maria Hoefl-Riesch out of the top spot and give Shiffrin a .49 second leading going into the second run. Shiffrin came close to falling in her second run, but was able to stay up. She had a combined time of 1:44.54, which was .53 seconds faster than Marlies Schild of Austria. Schild won the silver and Kathrin Zettel of Austria won the bronze, according to Yahoo Sports.
"It was a pretty crazy moment there," Shiffrin said about her second run. "I went out of the start, and I was like, 'I'm going fast.' Then I went out of that flush and was like, 'I'm not gonna make it. I'm not gonna make it.' I threw on a hockey stop right there. That was a little bit tough. It scared me half to death.”
Shiffrin’s win was huge for the U.S. which hasn’t had much luck in the women’s slalom in the Olympics. In addition to being the young women slalom winner, Shiffrin become the first women from the U.S. to win the slalom since Barbara Cochran won the gold at the 1972 Olympic Games, according to USA Today. Shiffrin was one of the favorites in the slalom, after winning three of six slalom races on the World Cup circuit this year. She won a world championship last year.
Shiffrin’s gold medal is the fifth medal for the U.S. Alpine team in Sochi. It’s their second gold medal as Ted Ligety won the gold in the men’s giant slalom.