Sweden's Sara Hector wins Olympic giant slalom gold after Mikaela Shiffrin out

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Sara Hector smiled when she crossed the finish line Monday and raised her ski poles to put them atop her helmet. She seemed to be laughing later, as if to say, "Did I really just do this?" while clutching her gold during the giant slalom medal ceremony.

And, yes, of course the Swedish racer was grinning widely when her coach and others hoisted her off the snow to celebrate a career-defining victory that seemed so improbable for so long yet somehow seemed inevitable lately.

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Hector capped a recent career resurgence in the best way possible at the Beijing Olympics, claiming her first individual win at any major championship by finishing two runs down a course known as The Ice River at the Yanqing Alpine Skiing Center in a total time of 1 minute, 55.69 seconds.

She credited work with a mental coach, better equipment, improved technique and "working really, really hard" for turning her results around.

Hector earned her first World Cup race win all the way back in December 2014 — and then waited seven years to get No. 2 this past December. And then all of a sudden, as though she had discovered the secret to success, she tacked on Nos. 3 and 4 in January. Each was in a giant slalom.

That meant, according to Per Jonsson, Sweden’s coach for the technical events, that Hector went to the 2022 Games "coming in like a favorite, a little bit."

Federica Brignone of Italy was 0.28 seconds slower over the two legs to add a silver medal to the bronze she won in the GS at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games behind champion Mikaela Shiffrin, who fell during Monday’s opening run hours earlier and was eliminated.

"She’s a super, super kind