Heavy, wet snow couldn't stop Croatia's Janica Kostelic from winning her third medal of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, this one in women's slalom with a time of 1 minute, 46.10 seconds.

Kostelic led the two-run slalom race from start to finish, fighting her way through blizzard conditions to post the fastest first-run time of 52.14 seconds and hanging on to win by a scant .07 seconds over Laure Pequegnot of France. Sweden's Anja Paerson was 3rd in 1:47.09.

The race was marred from the start by foul weather as heavy snowfall made the "Know You Don't" course difficult for all racers with a combination of fresh snow covering deteriorating ice.

Nineteen skiers failed to finish the first run, including American medal favorites Kristina Koznick and Sarah Schleper. Eleven more skiers failed to finish the second run.

"I don't know, I think everyone skied really bad," Kostelic said of her ability to win in such adverse conditions. "The course was bad. Probably I skied the best way through a bad course. I can't find really the right word for that. It was breaking up. It was rutty."

The 20-year-old Croatian has emerged as the women's skiing star in these Olympics, winning her nation's first-ever Olympic medal on Feb. 12 with a gold in the combined. On Feb. 17 she earned the silver in super G, followed now by the slalom gold.

"When we ski on the World Cup, it's flat hills. It's like skiing a parking lot. And when we come here it's so steep," Paerson said. "I know Kostelic is such a good skier when it's steep. I knew for sure that she had to be one of the medal candidates today. I'm not surprised that she's so fast here."

Despite being plagued by knee injuries that led to three operations in the past two years, Kostelic has won 12 World Cup events in only four years of racing and the 2001 overall and slalom titles.

Paerson, too, was considered a favorite in today's race, having won four straight World Cup slaloms this season before failing to finish the last three before the Games.

"I was the favorite coming here and I felt the pressure. Everyone from my country wanted me to win he gold," Paerson said. "Sweden hasn't had such a great Olympics, so I had a lot of pressure on myself. I am so happy I could get through it and get a medal."

Pequegnot, a former world junior slalom champion, moved ahead of Koznick to the top of the slalom standings just before the Olympic break. Prior to the Olympics, Koznick had not finished worse than 8th in any race this season.

"The number three starting position is usually a good number," Koznick said. "But on a course like this that's so tough, it's not good. Even early on there were huge holes. It was really difficult. This course caught me off guard. I tried to make up some time near the finish and it caught up with me."

Lindsey Kildow, 17, was the only American to survive both slalom runs. Her time of 2:00.73 was good for 32nd place

— Scott Willoughby, MountainZone.com Correspondent