PYEONGCHANG, South Korea

The nervous energy accumulated for Mikaela Shiffrin while she waited, waited, waited for these Olympics — the ones that so many are expecting to be HER Olympics — to finally get started. First one race was postponed. Then another.

And so it was not until a week into the Pyeongchang Games that Shiffrin and the other female Alpine skiers got to compete in the rescheduled giant slalom, an event the 22-year-old American considers a work in progress for her. In second place and still feeling some jitters after the first of today’s two runs, Shiffrin did two things during the 3 1/2 hours before the deciding leg of the GS: She took a nap, and then she sneaked onto the adjacent men’s course at Yongpong Alpine Center for a little free skiing.

On a crisp, clear day with very little sign of the gusts that have played havoc with the skiing program, Shiffrin dealt well with her pent-up emotions and put together a pair of aggressive, if not quite perfect, trips through the gates to win the giant slalom for the second Olympic gold medal of her precocious career.

No American Alpine skier has won more.

Friday brings the slalom, by far Shiffrin’s best event, one that she has dominated for five years, including a gold at the 2014 Sochi Games plus a trio of world titles. She is a huge favorite in that one, unlike the giant slalom, in which Shiffrin was merely a strong contender. After that, Shiffrin will skip Saturday’s super-G, according to her mom, because there’s no time to properly prepare. She still intends to enter the downhill and combined.

At Yongpong, Shiffrin found some problems in the choppy terrain of the second half of the 51-gate GS course, in part because nearby trees created shadows that made it tough to see.

But she wasn’t the only one: Her first run was second fastest; her other was fourth-fastest.

That last part is key to appreciating the way Shiffrin regrouped and performed in a race originally slated for Monday. Mostly terrific on the World Cup circuit this season — winning 10 of 23 races she’s entered to lead the overall standings — she stumbled in late January and failed to finish three of her last four races.

Yet after that hour’s snooze in a lodge atop the mountain, followed by the impromptu skiing session with Mom, Shiffrin was able to perform at her best, which clearly is good enough.

After finishing, Shiffrin put her right glove on her chest, mouth agape. She paused and put her poles atop her neon helmet. She covered her ski goggles with both hands, taking the moment in.

Only briefly, though. There is more work to be done. And perhaps more medals to be won.

“It was my 15 seconds to let it all out,” Shiffrin said.