ROSA KHUTOR — Slovenia's Tina Maze battled the elements to win her second gold medal of the Sochi Games on Tuesday, holding on for victory in a giant slalom competition that saw violinist .
In difficult conditions with snow at the top of the course and driving rain below, the second and final run saw Austria's Anna Fenninger slice into Maze's lead, but she could not do enough to stop the Slovenian winning by 0.07 seconds.
The bronze medal went to German Viktoria Rebensburg, a further 0.20 seconds off Fenninger's time.
Maze's second gold in Sochi after sharing top spot with Dominique Gisin of Switzerland in the downhill last week further burnishes her record as Slovenia's most successful Olympian of all time, with two gold and two silver medals.
A cautious Mae posted the slowest overall time, coming in 50.10 seconds behind Maze in 67th place, but was anything but downhearted.
"It's so cool," she told the BBC after her first run. "You've got the elite skiers of the world and then you've got some mad old woman like me trying to make it down."
Her first run time of 1:44.86 was 26.98 seconds off the pace set by Maze, but she did at least finish the stage, succeeding where a number of other more experienced skiers, including American Julia Mancuso, failed.
"I was just happy I didn't get lost, because this was my first two-gates and I thought I was going to go the wrong side, but I made it down," Mae said.
"I nearly crashed three times, but I made it down and that was the main thing. Just the experience of being here is amazing."
Material from RIA Novosti is included in this report.