Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin saved her best for last on Saturday, defending her world slalom crown with a blistering second run in the final ladies event at Beaver Creek in Colorado.
The 19-year-old American clocked a time of one minute 38.48 seconds, topping an earlier run by silver medallist Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, who finished 0.34sec behind. Czech Sarka Strachova was 0.43sec back of Hansdotter for the final podium spot.
Shiffrin becomes the first female skier with two individual world titles before turning 20 years old since Swiss star Erika Hess in 1982.
Slovakia's Veronika Velez Zuzulova finished fourth in 1:39.42 and Austrian Kathrin Zettel was fifth with a time of 1:39.50.
World Cup overall points leader Tina Maze was 2.48sec back of Shiffrin.
Shiffrin entered her signature event after a flawless first run in the morning session that gave her a 0.40sec lead.
Her win marked the second gold overall and second in as many days for the host country, following Ted Ligety's come-from-behind giant slalom victory on Friday.
Austria leads the team medal standings with nine, including five gold, while the USA is second with five medals. Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland all have three medals each.
Winning gold on the penultimate day of the worlds was a big relief for Shiffrin who finished a disappointing eighth in Thursday's giant slalom.
Shiffrin, who grew up in the Beaver Creek area, skied brilliantly on a sun-splashed postcard-like day in front of a standing-room only crowd at the finish of the Birds of Prey course.
Just like she did in her first run, tiny dancer Shiffrin stormed out of the gate, shimmied her way through the middle turns, then gained speed at the bottom before leaning across the finish line to a deafening roar from the 4,000-strong pro-US crowd.
Shiffrin also becomes just the third woman to win the slalom title in back-to-back Worlds and the first world champion to win on home snow since 1997 when Italian Deborah Compagnoni did it in Sestriere.
Hansdotter, who specialises in the technical events, leads the World Cup slalom standings over Shiffrin and Maze.
Strachova won the world slalom title at the 2007 Worlds in Are, Sweden.
The Beaver Creek worlds wrap up Sunday with the men's slalom race.
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