Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova wins women’s Olympic slalom
Petra Vlhova won Slovakia’s first Olympic Alpine skiing gold medal on Wednesday with victory in a tight women’s slalom race on the ‘Ice River’ course at the Beijing Games.
#UPDATE Slovakia's Petra Vlhova produced a stunning second leg to win Beijing #WinterOlympics slalom gold on Wednesday after Mikaela Shiffrin slid out of medal contention with a botched first run https://t.co/TKNMQHVGTd #Beijing2022 #AFPSports pic.twitter.com/MckmqyYDjt
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 9, 2022
Petra Vlhova won Slovakia’s first Olympic Alpine skiing gold medal on Wednesday with victory in a tight women’s slalom race on the ‘Ice River’ course at the Beijing Games.
The Slovak’s victory, powering from eighth place after the first run, came after her fancied American rival Mikaela Shiffrin failed to finish the first leg.
Vlhova had an 0.08 advantage over silver medallist Katharina Liensberger of Austria with Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener in the bronze medal position a further four hundredths behind.
Germany’s Lena Duerr had been fastest after the first run but narrowly missed out on the podium, finishing fourth after her second run was 0.91 slower than Vlhova.
There was just 0.22 seconds between the winner and fifth-placed Andreja Slokar of Slovenia as the top skiers pulled out all the stops on their second run.
Sweden’s Sara Hector, who won gold in Monday’s giant slalom, was third after the first leg and was in the lead with the finishing line in sight but missed a gate.
