YANQING, Beijing, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Petra Vlhova from Slovakia staged a spectacular comeback to win the women's slalom gold at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games here on Wednesday, while her arch-rival Mikaela Shiffrin from the United States slid out of medal contention in the first run.
Vlhova's gold is Slovakia's first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing.
The 26-year-old seemed set for more disappointment following Monday's 14th finish in the giant slalom when she completed her first run in eighth place, 0.72 seconds behind leader Lena Duerr of Germany.
But she put on an aggressive second run to make it up for a winning combined time of one minute and 44.98 seconds.
Katharina Liensberger of Austria finished second with 0.08 seconds behind Vlhova. Wendy Holdener of Switzerland was 0.12 seconds behind Vlhova to take bronze.
"Honestly, it was really difficult to be calm and focused on my skiing," Vlhova said of her comeback in the race.
"But I had a lot of power from my team. They trusted me, they believed in me and they repeated it to me, 'you are so strong, just ski free, enjoy and focus on your skiing, nothing else'. They were always repeating this to me in between the two runs," she added.
Her coach Mauro Pini said his team had encouraged Vlhova to be brave and go all out in her second run.
"We were just asking Petra between the two runs to really be courageous. Big heart on the slope in the second run," he said.
"Nothing to lose, just to be in the room tonight and don't regret nothing. Unbelievable," he said.
Two days after suffering a shock exit from the giant slalom, pre-race favorite Shiffrin, who won the slalom gold at the 2014 Sochi Games and giant slalom gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, managed just a handful of gates before skiing out.
"I was pushing and maybe it was just past my limit," said the 26-year-old American.
"I had the intention to do my best skiing and my quickest turns, but in order to do that I had to push the line, the tactics and it's really on the limit then and things happen so fast that there is no space to slip up, even a little bit," she said.
"It's a let-down of everything, letting down myself, letting down other people," she said. ■
