Ted Ligety of the United States won the last World Cup giant slalom event of the season in Bormio, Italy, on Friday, claiming the season title in the category as well.

Ligety, an Olympic combined champion, finished the giant slalom season with 485 points to Austrian Benjamin Raich's 438.

Ted Ligety of the United States, left, shows the men's giant slalom title trophy as Austria's Marlies Schild shows the women's slalom title trophy in Bormio, Italy.
(AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Earlier Friday, American skier Lindsey Vonn clinched the women's overall title, completing the American sweep of this year's top honours in alpine. 

"This is an amazing day," U.S. men's head coach Phil McNichol said. "It went down to the last guys."

Fellow American and overall champion Bode Miller was No. 1 after the first run, but missed a gate in the second to forfeit the lead.

With the second-best time after the first heat, Raich was poised to take gold in the race along with the giant slalom season title.

'Characteristics of a champion'

But Ligety improved on his seventh-place first run with a field-beating second run that allowed him to edge out rival Raich, who became the runner-up in the giant slalom discipline.

Ligety's combined time of two minutes, 18.04 seconds put him 0.31 seconds ahead of Raich.

"He was clearly the fastest skier this season," McNichol said. "Now that he's won his first cup, he can branch out and go for the overall. Ted showed all season how consistent he is and in my opinion those are the characteristics of a champion."

France's Cyprien Richard took bronze, 0.68 seconds off Ligety's pace.

The top Canadian, Eric Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., finished 14th, followed by New Richmond, Que., native Francois Bourque, who was 20th.

With files from the Associated Press