ARE, Sweden -- Mikaela Shiffrin's careful planning failed to pay off at the world championships as her gold-medal bid in the giant slalom was blown off course by strong winds and a Slovakian rival emerging as the biggest threat to her Alpine skiing dominance.
Petra Vlhova won Slovakia's first world title Thursday after finishing 0.14 seconds ahead of Viktoria Rebensburg in a giant slalom raced in tough conditions because of winds that reached 43.5 mph and unseasonably high temperatures.
"I try to not think about the wind," Vlhova said. "I try to think about my skiing. ... I tried to be little bit down with my position and just ski."
Shiffrin won the bronze medal, 0.38 seconds back.
"It felt like you couldn't get small enough to get out of the wind," Shiffrin said. "In the start, both runs actually, but especially the second run, I started to feel the wind coming on stronger and pushing me backward from the starting gate."
Vlhova won silver Friday in the Alpine combined -- an event Shiffrin chose to skip, to the surprise of some, to preserve energy for the giant slalom and slalom after winning the super-G on the opening day of competition.
However, Shiffrin was 0.44 seconds off Rebensburg's lead after the first run and had only the sixth-fastest run in the second leg.
Vlhova put her hands to her head when Rebensburg, who was last down in the second leg, crossed the line with the second-best time. Rebensburg, the 2010 Olympic champion in giant slalom, was 0.40 seconds ahead at the third checkpoint, only to lose 0.54 seconds in the bottom section.
With gusts buffeting the skiers -- it was so windy that organizers removed the banner above the finishing line -- Vlhova's power helped her negate a 0.19-second deficit to Rebensburg after the first run. She also overcame crashing into a gate between the second and third checkpoints, which saw her briefly lose control.
"Finally," she said, "I can show to everyone who is Vlhova."
Plenty already know her.
Vlhova is the only racer to beat Shiffrin in slalom this season and also won two giant slaloms recently -- tying with Shiffrin in the final giant slalom before worlds.
Shiffrin acknowledged that she struggled to get a "response from the surface" after rain for the past two days in the central Swedish resort of Are. It meant she ended up happy to come away with third place for her sixth world championship medal -- just two off the American record held by Lindsey Vonn.
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ā U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) February 14, 2019
World Championships bronze for @MikaelaShiffrin tonight, and that makes her career World Champs medal count SIX at just 23-years-old. "I thought after 1st run, 'If I can walk away from today with a medal after first run, that's great!' Bronze feels awesome!"š„šš¤© pic.twitter.com/8WVeeJHcsZ
"You just can't anticipate these sort of situations," said Mike Day, Shiffrin's coach. "We would like to spend more time training in these conditions, but in reality we just don't get it very often. Figuring out the setup and how hard you can push is a difficult thing. She managed the risk of the evening and came out in a reasonable spot."
The slalom is on Saturday, when Shiffrin will be an even bigger favorite.
"I certainly feel more comfortable in slalom in these variable conditions than I do in GS," Shiffrin said. "I'm really looking forward to the fight, and we'll see what happens."
Vlhova also won a silver medal in combined, setting up the slalom as a race to determine the top skier of the championships.
"It's really motivating having an opponent that's always there ... and fighting to be on the top step in every discipline the way that I am," Shiffrin said. "It's inspiring in some ways."