Olympic Men's Alpine Skiing Results 2018: Marcel Hirscher Wins Giant Slalom

Austria's Marcel Hirscher captured his second gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics as he bested the field in the men's giant slalom final Sunday in Pyeongchang, South Korea (Saturday evening in the United States). 

Hirscher finished the competition with a final time of 2:18.04, which landed him 1.27 seconds ahead of silver medalist Henrik Kristoffersen from Norway. 

France's Alexis Pinturault clocked in third and took home bronze.  

Here's a look at the top-five finishers from the Yongpyong Alpine Centre, with complete results available through the Olympics' official website: 

• Gold: Marcel Hirscher (Austria) 2 minutes, 18.04 seconds
• Silver: Henrik Kristoffersen (Norway) +1.27 seconds
• Bronze: Alexis Pinturault (France) +1.31 seconds
• 4. Zan Kranjec (Slovenia) +1.73 seconds
  
• 5. Thomas Fanara (France) +1.79 seconds

Hirscher's gold represents the third Olympic medal of his career after he nabbed silver in slalom four years ago and gold in the men's combined final earlier in the week.    

Given Hirscher's status as a six-time defending overall World Cup champion, his continued dominance hasn't come as much of a shock. 

The big surprise, it turns out, was that American Ted Ligety landed well outside the podium and tied for the 15th-fastest overall time (2:21.25).

Ligety, who captured gold in giant slalom four years ago, finished his opening run with a time of 1:10.71 that left him 2.44 seconds off Hirscher's pace. His second run clocked in at 1:10.54. 

"I was really surprised when I saw the time," Ligety said of his first run, according to the Washington Post's Rick Maese. "It didn't feel like I crushed it, but it didn’t feel 2.5 seconds bad.

"... I just thought it would run a little bit more challenging than the way it did. ... I just kind of like over-skied it and maybe thought the rolls were going to come into play a little bit more, and they were easy. No excuse."

A two-time gold medalist, Ligety has had a rough go during his first week in Pyeongchang following a handful of injury-riddled seasons on the international circuit. 

Prior to Sunday's slow effort, the 33-year-old failed to finish his final run in the men's super-G competition when he skied off the course.

Ligety also finished fifth in the alpine combined, which represented a seven-place improvement from his performance four years ago.