PYEONGCHANG: "Old lady" Lindsey Vonn topped the downhill section of the women's Olympic alpine combined on Thursday to leave American teammate Mikaela Shiffrin almost two seconds to make up in the slalom.

Vonn, who won bronze in Wednesday's downhill, clocked 1min 39.37sec down the 2.8km-long Jeongseon course to finish 0.74sec ahead of Norway's Ragnhild Mowinckel, searching for a third medal in Pyeongchang after silvers in the giant slalom and downhill.

Switzerland's Michelle Gisin was third, at 0.77sec, with Austrian Ramona Siebenhofer fourth (+0.97). Shiffrin came in sixth at 1.98sec.

"I'm just the old lady holding on for a medal!" laughed Vonn, 33.

"I'm not expecting anything and I think that's maybe what makes me have an outside chance.

"I'm going to absolutely give it everything I have and fight from the start to finish and, maybe just maybe, I can get a medal."

Vonn, who won downhill gold and super-G bronze in the 2010 Vancouver Games but missed Sochi through injury, said she could not have asked for any more than her impeccable descent in bright, cold conditions.

"I have two seconds on Mikaela and seven-tenths on Gisin. Gisin's going to be really dangerous," she said, labelling Siebenhofer however as the likeliest "toughest competitor" come the slalom scheduled for 3:00pm (0600 GMT).

Vonn does not train slalom for fear of overburdening her fragile knee, instead relying on muscle memory dating back to when she first started out on the World Cup circuit.

Asked when she last produced a competitive slalom, the American said: "I don't know! I've won World Cup slaloms before, but that was quite a few years ago.

"I can make good slalom turns but I just have to make enough good ones to get on the podium!"

Shiffrin won the giant slalom in Pyeongchang, but fluffed her lines in the defence of her slalom title when she could only finish fourth.

The 22-year-old, who lost valuable time on a rough traverse after just the third gate of the course, said she felt the pressure was now off, and that she felt more comfortable in the technical event than when the medal race was held last week.

"It was ok, I made a pretty big mistake up the top trying to go more aggressive," said Shiffrin, who already has 41 World Cup victories to her name.

"I'm in a pretty good position, but to be honest I don't know whether I can make up two seconds.

"It almost takes the pressure off, which is good for me, it means I can ski free."

Shiffrin admitted she had a point to prove after her disappointment in the individual slalom.

"I wouldn't say I have an axe to grind with myself... but I have this feeling that I just want to put out a run that I can be really proud of.

"I have a chance to do that this afternoon and I'm looking forward to it, But I feel much much better with my slalom now than a week ago."

One absentee from the morning's racing was Italy's newly-crowned downhill champion Sofia Goggia, a close friend of Vonn's.

"She texted me this morning," Vonn said. "Her knee's bothering her. She doesn't need to take any risks, she already has the gold medal.

"I think it was a smart decision on her part. She has the super-G and downhill titles to go for on the World Cup."