Janica Kostelic, the Croatian sensation at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games made history as the first alpine skier to win four Olympic medals in a single Winter Games when she demolished the women's giant slalom field by more than a full second on Friday.

Kostelic's winning time of 2 minutes, 30.01 seconds was 1.32 seconds faster than silver medalist Anja Paerson of Sweden (2:31.33) and 1.66 seconds better than bronze medalist Sonja Nef of Switzerland (2:31.67).

"I had a good run. Both runs were good," Kostelic said. "I didn't expect to be good in the second run because usually I blow up in one run, but I heard that Sonja and Anja had a good run, so I had to do my best. I wanted the Olympic medal."

Kostelic earned her nation's first medal in history with the gold in combined earlier in these Olympics, following it with another gold in slalom and the silver in super G. With today's win, she ties Jean-Claude Killy of France and Toni Sailer of Austria as the only alpine skiers to win three gold medals in an Olympics.

Hanni Wenzel of Liechtenstein (1980) and Rosi Mittermaier of Germany (1976) both won four medals at a single Olympics, but their medals in the combined event did not count as Olympic medals. Combined was scored by adding the times of the traditional Olympic downhill and slalom races, but the awards were International Ski Federation (FIS) World Championship medals and not Olympic medals.

"I'm happy, but records are made to be broken," Kostelic said. "Someone else will break my record soon."

It is unlikely the record will be broken by anyone else as long as Kostelic continues ski racing. The 20-year-old continued her tear through the Salt Lake Games with a first-run giant slalom time of 1:16.00, a half-second faster than runner-up Alexandra Meissnitzer of Austria and nearly a full second better than Paerson and reigning World and World Cup Champion Nef. Rather than conserving her margin on the second run, she expanded it and demolished the field entirely.

"She proved mentally she's the strongest. She's incredible," Paerson said. "She can really ski with the pressure on herself. She's the one we have to beat and I am so happy for her."

Meissnitzer fell to 4th place with a time of 2:31.95, followed by teammate Michaela Dorfmeister in 2:31.95. For Dorfmeister, the 1999 world champion in giant slalom and super G, the loss was especially frustrating after finishing 4th in the Olympic super G on Feb. 17.

Kristina Koznick (2:34.22) was the top finisher on a frustrated American team, placing 17th. She was followed by Sarah Schleper (2:35.96) in 21st place.

"I have such high expectations of myself. I know I'm better than 17th," Koznick said. "But I'm glad I got to finish twice, and I got to hear the crowd. That's something to take home."

— Scott Willoughby, MountainZone.com Correspondent