WHISTLER, British Columbia, Feb. 23 (UPI) -- Carlo Janka of Switzerland, a rising star on the international skiing circuit, turned in two solid runs Tuesday and won the Olympic giant slalom.
Janka, 23, won this event at the world championships last year and has six World Cup victories to his credit during the current season.
It was the first of what his fellow competitors on the circuit expect to be many Olympic medals.
Janka took the spotlight away from American Bode Miller, who had been trying to become the first alpine skier ever to win four medals in the same Olympics.
Miller, who won gold in the combined, silver in the super-giant slalom and bronze in the downhill, drew the No. 31 starting position for the first giant slalom run Tuesday. That all but wiped out his hopes since such a late starting spot meant he would be traveling on a course than had been chopped up by all those who had gone before.
Miller was more than a second off Janka's time at the third and last intermediate timing point of the first run, then missed a gate to end his day.
After turning in the best time in the first run, Janka had the third best effort in the second run.
His combined time of 2:37.83 was .39 of a second in front of Norway's Kjetil Jansrud. Another Norwegian, Aksel Lund Svindal, finished third. Svindal's bronze medal was added to the gold he had won in the super-G.
The top American finisher was Ted Ligety, who wound up ninth. This was the seventh alpine event of the Olympics and it was the first one in which the United States did not win a medal.
