Winner of two downhills last January, the 24-year-old Swiss beat Americans Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso in a windswept race, with weather conditions once again playing a major part.

Gisin, whose career has been hampered by injuries, won in a time of one minute, 24.14 seconds, beating Vonn by 0.15 seconds and Mancuso by 0.38.

"I can hardly believe it. Yesterday I probably skied the worst downhill in my career and I even wondered whether it was worth starting today," Gisin said.

"But I'm a fighter and I told myself I could not beat the wind but had nothing to lose. To win a super-G, which is not my best event, in front of my home crowd is just unbelievable," she added.

Vonn, who narrowly won Saturday's downhill on the same piste, was denied her 11th victory of the season and an American record of 33 World Cup wins but increased her overall World Cup lead over rival Maria Riesch.

With four races left at the World Cup finals in Riesch's native resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the American downhill Olympic champion leads the German, who won the slalom and super-combined gold medals in Vancouver, by 245 points.

"My plan was to win both races here but I leave Crans-Montana with three globes in my pocket and it's a good thing before Garmisch.

"I'm still very nervous ahead of the finals. My aim there is to be OK in the technical events at last," she said.

Mancuso, winner of two medals in Vancouver, confirmed her return to form with her first World Cup podium in two years.

The American's last victory was more than three years ago.

In Kvitfjell, Norway, Canadian Erik Guay claimed the first World Cup Super-G victory of his career on Sunday.

Guay, fifth in the downhill and the Super-G at last month's Vancouver Olympics, clocked one minute 31.95 seconds as he registered his second win in a World Cup race.

Austrian Hannes Reichelt was second, 0.02 seconds adrift, with Olympic champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Swiss Tobias Gruenenfelder joint third.

"Obviously I would have loved to achieve this result at the Olympics but sometimes you're on the right side and sometimes on the wrong side of luck," said Guay, who also failed to make the downhill podium at the 2006 Olympics in Turin by 0.01 seconds.

"For us Canadians there was two much press, too many expectations in Whistler," he said.

Guay registered his previous World Cup victory in a downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen three years ago.

"In Kvitfjell you need to find the right balance between attack and smoothness. I worked very hard to achieve this," he said.

Reichelt, who picked up a slight injury ahead of the Olympics, was only selected as a reserve for the Super-G in Vancouver.

Swiss Didier Cuche, winner of Saturday's downhill on the same course, failed to finish as he suffered a body blow to his overall World Cup title chances.

Austria's Benjamin Raich leads the overall standings on 1,020 points ahead of Swiss Carlo Janka on 973 and Cuche on 846 before the finals in Garmisch this week.

Swede Patrik Jaerbyn, 41, finished eighth only two weeks after being involved in a serious crash at the Olympics.