Switzerland's Corinne Suter claimed bronze, at 0.05sec, herself just two-hundredths ahead of Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg in fourth. "I don't think this is going to sink in for a long time, it's crazy!" said Shiffrin. "It's a really tight race, seven hundredths of a second to fourth place, these races are tough. It's a small difference, it's nothing.
"It was a fight, I knew everyone was pushing really hard. The surface is amazing so you could really go for it. "It had to be a really good balance between risk and really nice turns. But I was going really aggressive, there was only one spot at the bottom where I had to fight to stay in the race."
Shiffrin didn't commit to what her programme might be in the coming week. "I'm going to take a minute tonight and talk with my coaches to see what we think we could do for the rest of these champs," the 23-year-old said. Czech Ester Ledecka, who surprised the field to win super-G gold in Pyeongchang before going on to claim the parallel giant slalom in snowboarding, paid the price for two mistakes up high, only finishing in 1:07.69, well off the pace. At least she finished. Vonn, in her final season, had no such luck.