The American star slalomed her way to a combined time of 2min 9.40sec as conditions deteriorated in the Austrian resort.

Her first run of 1:00.84 was the quickest of the day while her second was almost eight seconds slower, in 1:08.56, but still enough to comfortably hold the top spot.

She finished in 2:09.40 to win by 0.15 over French rival Tessa Worley, who also finished second behind Shiffrin in yesterday's first giant slalom event.

Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany finished a narrow third today in 2:09.58.

Shiffrin now has 698 points in the overall World Cup standings, with Switzerland’s defending champion Lara Gut 115 behind in second place.

Ilka Štuhec of Slovenia is third on 495.

It came as the men's downhill event in Santa Caterina was cancelled due to strong winds.

The upper part of the Deborah Compagnoni course at the Italian resort was considered too dangerous for competition.

"After two delays, the situation didn’t improve and the weather forecast announced no changes in the next hour," said the FIS in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the only option left was to cancel the downhill."

No replacement race will be scheduled due to a lack of time in an already congested timetable.

This means that just eight downhill events will be held this year rather than the usual total of nine.