(Photo credit: Reuters/Lisi Niesner)

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy -- Mikaela Shiffrin won the women's slalom at the Milano Cortina Games on Wednesday, claiming her first Olympic medal since 2018.

Shiffrin was more than one second faster than every competitor except Germany's Lena Duerr (47.95) in the last Alpine skiing event of the Milano Cortina Olympics. After starting seventh, Shiffrin lived up to the billing as the overwhelming favorite with a time of 47.13 seconds.

'It felt very good, it was very good skiing. I was super active and I was also a bit on the limit. There were probably three different times when I felt I could probably easily be pushed off the course but I guess it was what it required,' said Shiffrin. 'It requires a lot of precision ... mentality and a bit of tactical planning in the middle. I felt like I nailed it - with some question marks but I'm going to give it a go in the second run.'

Switzerland's Camille Rast took silver and Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson the bronze.

Shiffrin has won seven of eight World Cup slaloms this season but is still chasing her first Olympic medal since 2018, after drawing a blank in the team combined and giant slalom, and Wednesday was her third and last chance of 2026.

The 2014 Olympic slalom champion made clear it was business as usual with an aggressive run down a gleaming piste set by the Austrian coach Klaus Mayrhofer.

She was fastest through three of four sectors and walked away with a smile on her face.

Switzerland's Camille Rast, the world champion and only woman to have beaten Shiffrin in slalom this season, was in fourth place and 1.05 behind the American.

Reigning Olympic champion Petra Vlhova of Slovakia, sidelined for almost two years with torn knee ligaments, was 2.86 behind Shiffrin.

--Reuters, special to Field Level Media