Portugal Colonial - Macuga leads US team combined charge, Vonn struggles

But Lindsey Vonn's hopes of troubling the podium all but evaporated after she finished 2.51 seconds off Macuga's 1min 41.60sec pace down the 2.9km-long Ulli Maier course in the Austrian resort.

That result left Vonn's slalom partner AJ Hurt with a mountain to climb when that gets under way at 1215 GMT.

Macuga's technical partner is Paula Moltzan while Mikaela Shiffrin, the most successful skier of all time with 99 World Cup victories to her name, was paired with newly-crowned downhill champion Breezy Johnson.

Johnson, who won the blue riband event just weeks after returning from a 14-month suspension for three anti-doping whereabouts failures, was fourth behind Macuga, Germany's Emma Aicher and Austria's Mirjam Puchner.

It means Shiffrin will start the slalom with a 0.51sec deficit, with Moltzan, Lena Duerr and Katharina Liensberger represent the other US team, Germany and Austria.

"I wanted to give Mikaela the green light but it was not to be," said Johnson.

"It's definitely wild to be sharing it with another teammate. There is added pressure for everyone then lighter pressure as it is not all on you."

L.Henrique--PC