The 26-year-old, who won world gold in Utah last month, could only finish 13th in Winterberg today.

That meant she scored just 200 points but having started the day 220 points ahead, her lead proved just enough and she finished 20 points clear.

One of her closest rivals was Germany’s Selina Joerg, who at the start of the day was third overall on 1,400 points.

She eventually finished second, losing only to another Swiss Patrizia Kummer which gave her 800 points, a result which left her agonisingly short of the title.

Austria’s Sabine Schoeffman, who was second before today’s event, finished 10th on the day, meaning she dropped to third overall.

Bronze on the day was claimed by Ladina Jenny from Switzerland, who beat Austria’s Daniela Ulbing in the small final.

In the men’s event, Germany’s world bronze medallist Stefan Baumeister lost the big final to Austria’s Lukas Mathies, but that result was still good enough to secure him the men’s parallel slalom crystal globe with 2,020 points.

Baumeister’s second-place finish saw him overtake Russia’s Andrey Sobolev in the overall rankings, while Switzerland’s Dario Caviezel ended third on 1,870.

On the day, bronze went to Slovenia’s 2014 Olympic silver medallist Zan Kosir, who beat compatriot Tim Mastinak in the small final.

The overall parallel World Cup titles went to Czech Republic's Ester Ledecka and Sobolev, respectively.

Olympic parallel giant slalom champion Ledecka, who was fifth today, finished top of the women's combined slalom and giant slalom standings with 5,900 points, while on the men's side Sobolev ended on 4,625.

A team event will tomorrow close out the World Cup season.