The 28-year-old Pole was 11th after the first run in Yanqing, before leapfrogging into eight place following an excellent second run, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Over the past two years, Gąsienica-Daniel has established herself as a considerable force in women’s Alpine skiing, having finished sixth in the giant slalom at last year’s world championships.
On Monday, she reached the finish line 1.42 seconds behind the winner, Sweden’s Sara Hector.
The silver medal went to Italian Federica Brignone, with Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami grabbing the bronze.
Gąsienica-Daniel told reporters she would have performed better "had it not been for back trouble, which meant that until yesterday I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to compete today.”
It was Gąsenica-Daniel’s best-ever Olympic finish and Poland’s best since 1998 when Andrzej Bachleda Jr. finished fifth in the men's combined event at the Nagano Olympics.
Poland’s two other competitors, Magdalena Łuczak and Zuzanna Czapska, came 26th and 30th respectively.
Polish ski-jumping mixed team comes sixth
Meanwhile, Polish ski jumpers Nicole Konderla, Kinga Rajda, Kamil Stoch and Dawid Kubacki finished sixth in the first-ever Olympic mixed team event on Monday.
Kubacki a day earlier took the bronze in the men’s normal hill event, winning Poland’s first medal of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
In other Olympic action on Monday, Team Poland’s Monika Hojnisz-Staręga came 20th in the women’s 15km individual biathlon competition, while Natalia Czerwonka and Magdalena Czyszczoń finished 19th and 30th respectively in the women's 1500m speed skating event.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, TVP Sport