Mikaela Shiffrin opened up Italy's famous Topolino Games with a U.S. bang collecting the first gold medal of the event resulting from two dominant runs in the slalom.

The Burke Mountain Academy racer posted a time more than four seconds ahead of the nearest competitor, Magdalena Fjaellstroem of Sweden. Adriana Jelinkova of the Netherlands got the bronze medal.

The U.S. squad of  JIII racers spent a week of training at the U.S. Ski Team's training site in Paganella, Italy before moving to Panarotta for the first competitions Saturday. Team leader Terry Delliquadri said that although Shiffrin had little trouble with the courses, the gate sets by Italian and Austrian coaches were difficult and none of the other U.S. athletes was able to get two clean runs down the hill.

"The first girls course (which was also the second guys course) had distance between gates between eight and nine meters," he said, "which is something that the USA athletes commented they were not familiar with."

Shiffrin photo by Jeff Shiffrin