Olympic Women's Alpine Skiing Results 2018: Mikaela Shiffrin Wins Giant Slalom

Mikaela Shiffrin is golden again. 

Four years after Shiffrin burst on the scene with a gold medal in the women's slalom, the 22-year-old American blitzed the competition Thursday and opened her stay at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, with a masterful winning run in the giant slalom final. 

Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel took silver and Italy's Federica Brignone managed bronze. 

An overview of the final standings can be viewed below, with results for all participants available through the Olympics' website: 

• Gold: Mikaela Shiffrin (United States) - 2 minutes, 20.02 seconds
• Silver: Ragnhild Mowinckel (Norway) +0.39 seconds
• Bronze: Federica Brignone (Italy) +0.46 seconds
• 4: Viktoria Rebensburg (Germany) + 0.58 seconds
• 5: Marta Bassino (Italy) +0.67 seconds

Shiffrin was considered to be in the mix for the podium entering the giant slalom final, but she was hardly the favorite considering she tallied a fifth-place finish in Sochi, Russia, at her first Olympics.  

However, things changed quickly after she laid down the second-best time (1:10.82) during the first run and provided a stellar foundation to build upon. 

Case in point: Although she didn't finish with the top time in the final run—that honor belonged to Sweden's Estelle Alphand—Shiffrin carded the fourth-best time at 1:09.20 during her last attempt and used that to blow by Mowinckel and Brignone. 

According to the International Ski Federation, Shiffrin is the sixth woman in Olympic history to win gold in both the slalom and giant slalom. 

Noticeably absent from the podium was Germant's Viktoria Rebensburg, who won giant slalom gold in 2010 and bronze in 2014. 

Rebensburg—who arrived in Pyeongchang as No. 1 in the giant slalom World Cup standings—slipped to fourth in large part because she finished eighth during her first run (1:11.45) and didn't post a time that allowed her to make up for that less-than-ideal start. 

Looking ahead, the spotlight will be trained firmly on Shiffrin as she eyes a repeat in the slalom and tries to pad her medal count with another gold Friday at the Yongpyong Alpine Centre.