The promised second-run charge might not have materialised, but Dave Ryding could still lay claim to achieving Great Britain's best Olympic alpine skiing result in 30 years.

An outside chance for a medal in the men's slalom after climbing the World Cup podium last season, Ryding had it all to do in here after he found himself down in 13th place following his first run.

The man, dubbed "The Rocket", claimed he had plenty of fuel still left in the tank and would go all out attack for his second run.

But he was unable to light the touch paper, with mistakes seeing him actually clock a slower time as he eventually finished in ninth with a combined time of 1:40.16.

There was no shame in the result though – despite the 31-year-old's hopes for better – as he recorded the best British finish since Martin Bell's eighth in the downhill at Calgary 1988.

And he was already targeting better at a potential fourth Olympics at Beijing 2022.

“After the dust settles I'm sure I'll be pretty proud of a top-ten finish at the Olympics and in four years' time have something to really build on,” he said.

“I had a couple of mistakes there that were a bit costly but I'm not sure everybody did, because the Olympics always give you a bit of the yips.

Ryding will be 35 by the time of the next Games but he was taking inspiration from new champion Andre Myhrer of Sweden.

“Myhrer is 35 and the last winner Mario Matt was also 35 and at the next Olympics I'm 35 so I'll try to keep that trend going.”