PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The showdown between Lindsey Vonn and her heir apparent, Mikaela Shiffrin, has been a dominant subplot throughout the Pyeongchang Olympics, and it was in the air again on the final run of the last individual Alpine race of the 2018 Winter Games.

The moment was, in fact, a scene nearly a year in the making, one whose flash point came last March when Shiffrin, 22, ascended to the title of world’s best women’s skier — a designation the 33-year-old Vonn had passionately guarded as her own for many years.

Vonn and Shiffrin, each an Olympic champion, had rarely raced against each other in any setting, let alone at the Olympics, the biggest stage in ski racing. But late on Thursday afternoon, as an approaching snowstorm cast a shadow over her, Vonn stood in the start house for almost certainly the last time at the Winter Games with a chance to join Shiffrin on the podium — even, possibly, to grab the gold medal and push Shiffrin, sitting in second place, to the bronze.