TURIN, Italy – Going into yesterday’s women’s slalom competition, two fathers watched intently from the stands as their respective daughters dueled it out beneath cloudy Italian skies: Anders Paerson and Ante Kostelic.

Both of their daughters are 24. Both reside in Monte Carlo. Both are coached by their dads, and most important, both were heavily favored in yesterday’s race. It was almost a foregone conclusion that either Anja Paerson of Sweden or Janica Kostelic of Croatia, or more likely both, would end the day with a third Olympic medal in Turin. Of course, only one of the daughters could take home the gold.

Paerson was the first to race the course, followed immediately by Kostelic. And that, more or less, is where the tension ended. Paerson posted a time of 42.38 on that virgin run, a mark that neither Kostelic – who finished in fourth place overall – nor any other woman yesterday could defeat. The Swede started the day on the top step of the podium and never moved an inch.

Her time on the second run was bested only by Austria’s Nicole Hosp, but the Austrian wasn’t fast enough. In the end, Paerson beat out Hosp by 0.29 seconds overall, while Marlies Schild, also of Austria, took bronze. The nearest American, Sarah Schleper, finished 10th.

This was the first Olympic gold for the four-time world champion Swede, breaking a curse made all the more painful by the fact that Kostelic already has four of them, and Paerson could hardly contain her joy.

“Unbelievable,” she told the Associated Press after her victory belly slide in the snow. “I have waited so long.”

Now, Paerson can also boast a third medal from these Olympics to add to her bronze in the downhill and anther bronze in the combined. Kostelic’s count, meanwhile, is one gold in the combined and one silver in the Super-G.

The rivalry between these two reached a fever pitch in December at the World Cup in the Czech Republic. There, Paerson won the gold in the slalom (on a course, incidentally, set by her father) and celebrated with a cartwheel – exactly as Kostelic had done the day before after winning the giant slalom.

This time, Paerson settled for her traditional belly-flop as her fans roared and Swedish flags rippled under the spotlights. Her father hugged her mother in the stands.

“Sometimes she surprises even me,” he said. “I saw her eyes when she came down. She was in a tunnel. She didn’t hear and see, just the gates. She was so focused. She really wanted this gold.”

Afterward, Kostelic complained of stomach problems and went home to the rented apartment outside of the Olympic Village where she stays with her father, the coach, her mother, the cook, and her brother Ivica, who is also her teammate. (Together, the brother sister duo has produced all of Croatia’s three medals in Turin. He won the silver in the men’s combined competition last week.)

The final women’s competition is the giant slalom on Friday, where Kostelic – ranked third in the World Cup GS standings – will have a chance to even the score. The only trouble: Paerson is ranked first in those same standings.

For the slalom, they found themselves in the opposite situation: the Croatian was ranked first and the Swede third.

Kostelic missed the podium yesterday by just 0.15 seconds. Still, one would be forgiven for thinking that a bronze wouldn’t have mattered anyway in a rivalry this tight.

“She deserves the gold,” Kostelic said after the race. “She has everything now.

jmoretti@nysun.com