MILAN - US ski star Mikaela Shiffrin ended her Olympic medal drought in style with gold in the slalom on Wednesday.
Shiffrin is one of skiing's all-time greats, but she has had to wait eight years since the 2018 Pyeongchang Games for the third gold of her glittering career.
In the final alpine skiing event in Italy, her emotional victory brought some solace to a US ski team still reeling from Lindsey Vonn's horrific crash in the downhill.
The 30-year-old led after the first run in glorious conditions in Cortina d'Ampezzo and cruised to victory in a combined time of 1min 39.10sec, an impressive 1.5sec ahead of Switzerland's world champion Camille Rast.
Sweden's Anna Swenn Larsson rounded out the podium to claim the first Olympic medal of her career.
Shiffrin shed a tear after a victory that will help banish the bitter memories of both her last Olympics in Beijing -- where she failed to pick up a single medal from six races -- and her disappointing displays in the team combined and giant slalom in northern Italy.
"I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash," said the American. "It's not easy to do that, but I've been so focused every single day.
"Through a lot of discussions with my psychologist and my mum and my team, everything we said was that, despite pressure or nerves, I want to feel this skiing.
"In the end, today, showing up -- that was the thing I wanted most. More than the medal. Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable."