By USSA

OLYMPIC VALLEY — Olympic gold medalist Julia Mancuso (Squaw Valley) on Thursday took full advantage of home snow to win the Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships giant slalom for a record 16th U.S. title.

The Olympic gold medalist finished 0.88 in front of a red-hot Mikaela Shiffrin (Eagle-Vail, Colo.), 18, who had just locked the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup slalom title in Switzerland.

Julia Mancuso

The race opened the four-day culmination of the alpine ski racing year with more than 500 young athletes from across the country converging at the 1960 Olympic mountain to hunt for U.S. titles.

2013 NorAm overall champion Megan McJames (Park City, Utah) finished third to round out the women’s podium.

U.S. downhill champion Jackie Wiles (Aurora, Ore.) was sixth and Foreste Peterson (Berkeley) seventh to finish 2-3 among junior women.

The race was shortened from the planned start due to inconsistent snow after heavy snowfall on Wednesday. A packed crowd was on site for the opening race under Squaw Valley’s bluebird skies.

The Nature Valley U.S. Alpine Championships continue Friday with men’s and women’s super G.