Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhova set a blistering pace to win the season-opener in the discipline in Levi on Saturday with US star Mikaela Shiffrin finishing fourth.

The Slovak clocked the best times in both runs to crush the opposition with Germany's Lena Duerr second at 1.41sec and Austrian Katharina Liensberger 1.55sec off the pace to move up to third after the second run at the expense of Shiffrin.

Shiffrin, the most successful skier in the history of the World Cup with five overall World Cup trophies and a record 88 victories, had been third after the first run but was tenth-best in the second, to finish just off the podium at 1.70sec.

The 28-year-old American won both slaloms in Levi last season on her way to the crystal globe in the discipline.

For Vlhova, 28, it was a 29th World Cup victory and her sixth in Levi. 

She confirms her very good form at the start of the season, two weeks after her third place in the opening giant slalom in Soelden, Austria. 

Not since 2014 has a skier other than Shiffrin or Vlhova won in Levi, a city in the far north of Finland.

The skiers return for a second slalom on Sunday.

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