After a number of weather delays shuffled her Olympic schedule, 22-year-old American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin finally hit the slopes Thursday in Pyeongchang – and she delivered a gold-medal winning performance in the giant slalom.

Shiffrin, the 2014 Olympic champion in the slalom, isn’t quite as strong in the giant slalom, but she posted a blazing run in her first attempt that left her in second place.

Shiffrin’s times from each of her two runs would be added together to determine her final standing in the event, and she said in an interview with NBC in that she would be making an aggressive run at gold.

“I’m going to be going for it, and we’ll see what happens.”

Shiffrin trailed Italy’s Manuela Mölgg – a 31-year-old with zero career World Cup victories – by two-tenths of a second through one run.

Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel led when Shiffrin entered the gate for her final run hours later, with Mölgg as the only medal contender to follow. Shiffrin was brilliant, and steadily increased her advantage over Mowinckel through each time split.

A small mistake at the end of her run may have cost her a few tenths, but an overall time of 2:20.02 put her in provisional gold medal position.

Mölgg, who was vying to be the oldest Olympic gold medalist in the women’s giant slalom, couldn’t match the 22-year-old. A poor run dropped her into eighth place, giving Shiffrin the gold.

Shiffrin had an emotional moment near the finish line as she earned the first of what could be as many as five medals in these Games.