The American won the Lapland race for the third time and again received the traditional winner's prize of a reindeer.

She named the animal Mr Gru after a character from the film Despicable Me, with the beast joining Rudolph from 2013 and Sven from 2016.

Shiffrin, who won the Olympic slalom title at Sochi 2014 and then giant slalom gold at Pyeongchang 2018, clocked the quickest time of 45.06sec on her first run.

Her second descent in 47.55 was fifth-fastest but it was still enough for overall victory on 1min 32.61sec.

It came after the start of the race was moved down to the reserve position after high winds in the morning.

"I was even surprised at how good the course felt with the warm conditions," said Shiffrin. 

"The snow held up really well, and I was able to really push. 

"I had a little bit of a scary moment on the top of the pitch, but I kept fighting and made it to the finish. 

"That was fun."

Shiffrin has now won 33 slalom World Cup races and is closing in on the record of 35 held by Austria's Marlies Schild.

Slovakia's Petra Vlhová, who won this race last year, had to settle for second this time in 1:33.19.

Third place went to Bernadette Schild of Austria in 1:33.40.

The men will take to the course for their slalom race in Levi tomorrow.

It will be the first action of their World Cup season as their opening giant slalom was cancelled in Sölden last month due to the weather