The United States has retained its top spot at the Sochi Winter Olympics after gaining 27 medals Friday, beating Russia's 26. 

The U.S. is still at the top of the medal count after Mikaela Shiffrin took the gold in women's slalom alpine skiing Friday, making her the youngest winner ever of an olympics slalom gold medal. 

Shiffrin, 18, showed incredible agility on the Rosa Khotur course, during which she corrected herself mid-air, landing her skis back between the gates midway through her second run. 

According to ESPN, she took the top prize with the time of 1:44.54. Austrian slalom veteran Marlies Schild, who is one of Shiffrin's idols, took the silver with a time of 0.53 seconds. 

"There I was, I'm like, 'Grrreat. I'm just going to go win my first medal.' And then in the middle of the run, I'm like, 'Guess not." Shiffrin said. "So like, 'No. Don't do that. Do not give up. You see this through.' My whole goal was to just keep my skis moving."

"Today was one of the most special days of my life," Shiffrin continued. 

Schild, 32, has now taken slalom medals at three straight olympics, but has not won gold. 

"The dream died in the first run," said Schild, who had been sixth-fastest. "I won the silver medal in the second run and that's great."

Kathrin Zettel of Austria came in third, with a time of 0.81 behind Shiffrin. "Mikaela was absolute fantastic skiing, so she was the favorite and she nailed all of us," Zettel said. "She is the real Olympic champion."

Shiffrin is also the first American woman to get a slalom medal since Barbara Cochran took the gold at the 1972 Sapporo Olympics. 

The U.S. also took the silver Friday in the short track men's 5000m relay. 

The U.S. now has 27 medals total and nine gold medals. Russia is in second with 26 total medals, and Canada is in third with 24.

Canada's women's hockey team beat the U.S. for the gold Friday, to the palpable disappointment of the U.S. team. 

The Netherlands and Norway both have 22 medals each, with Norway leading the gold medal count with 10 gold medals total.