Beijing - Slovenia's Maruša Ferk Saioni finished 9th in the women's Alpine combined at the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Thursday, which saw a double victory of Swiss skiers. Michelle Gisin won the gold and Wendy Holdener the silver medal, with Italy's Federica Brignone grabbing bronze.

In the downhill part of the competition, Ferk Saioni was 6th, finishing 0.65 seconds behind the leader for her second-best downhill performance in major competitions ever.

In the slalom, which she does not specialise in, the Slovenian dropped three spots overall to finish 9th, which is nevertheless the best result for Ferk Saioni in her 16 appearances in four Winter Olympic Games.

The 33-year-old made her Olympic debut in Vancouver 12 years ago, and her previous best was the 10th place in the Alpine combined in Sochi in 2014.

"The slalom was difficult ... I've been out of slalom for a while now, so it was quite difficult. Nevertheless, I eventually achieved my best Olympic result, which is what I had wanted in a way," Ferk Saioni told reporters.

She added that she could have finished even higher given the performance in the downhill, but deep down she had been aware that there were many skiers on the slalom course who were better than her.