Alpine skiing-Switzerland's Gut-Behrami wins overall and GS World Cup globes

Alpine Skiing - FIS Alpine Ski World Cup - Women's Giant Slalom - Saalbach, Austria - March 17, 2024 Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami celebrates with the crystal globe after winning the giant slalom world cup REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

SAALBACH, Austria (Reuters) - Switzerland's Lara Gut-Behrami became the oldest woman to win Alpine skiing's overall World Cup crystal globe when she also clinched her first giant slalom title in the Austrian resort of Saalbach on Sunday.

The 32-year-old secured the points she needed by finishing a safe 10th in the final giant slalom won by Italian rival Federica Brignone.

Her second overall title, which takes the combined points from technical and speed disciplines, came eight years after the first in 2016.

The 2022 Olympic super-G champion is still on for a potential quartet of globes, something achieved previously by only three female skiers -- Americans Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin and Slovenia's Tina Maze.

"It’s unbelievable. GS has always been so important to me. I was really nervous today because I really wanted to win that," Gut-Behrami said at the podium ceremony.

"I skied so bad, I was just nervous so I'm not so proud about that but in the end, at 32, I learned that sometimes you just have to stay safe, try to cross the finish line. To win the globe is just unbelievable."

The Swiss is 19 points clear of absent Italian Sofia Goggia, who broke her tibia last month, in the downhill standings with Austrians Stephanie Venier and Cornelia Huetter respectively 68 and 72 behind.

In the Super-G, the Swiss leads Huetter by 69 points, with Brignone a further five behind.

The women's super-G is on Friday and the downhill on the following day.

Brignone had been 95 points behind in the giant slalom standings going into the race and did the maximum possible to close the gap to 21 at the finish with her fourth win of the season in the discipline.

The Italian finished a commanding 1.36 seconds clear of New Zealand's Alice Robinson with Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund third.

In the overall standings, with the two speed races remaining, Gut-Behrami leads Brignone by an unassailable 208 points.

She had been more than 400 behind Mikaela Shiffrin when the American was sidelined by a downhill crash in Italy in January and missed 11 races.

Shiffrin, who clinched the slalom title for an eighth time last weekend, did not race Sunday's giant.

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin in London, editing by Clare Fallon)