Austria’s Katharina Liensberger claims silver and Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener the bronze.
Petra Vlhova screamed with delight on realising the Olympic gold medal in slalom skiing was hers. The Slovakian wins her first Olympic medal and the first ever for her nation in Alpine skiing, in a thrilling event at the Yanqing National Alpine Skiing Centre on Wednesday (9 February).
The six-time World Championships medallist, one of the favourites for this event alongside her great rival, Team USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin, beat Austria’s Katharina Liensberger who snagged silver and Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener who claimed bronze.
Vlhova had a relatively pedestrian first run and was in eighth place going into the second, a huge three-quarters of a second behind the leader, Germany’s Lena Duerr. The 26-year-old then proceeded to watch seven skiers come down on the second run, celebrating when she knew she had at least won bronze.
Vlhova made her Olympic Winter Games debut at Sochi 2014, with her best result at PyeongChang 2018, a fifth in Alpine combined.
“It’s difficult to say what it means to me right now. I have been dreaming all my life to win an Olympics or just to have medals,” said Vlhova post race.