Eva-Maria Brem cries tears of revenge after maiden win

The Austrian smashed the field in the first leg, leading by more than a second while pre-race favourites Anna Fenninger of Austria and American Mikaela Shiffrin faltered.

She delivered again in the afternoon run to win in two minutes and 05.97 seconds, with a 0.59 seconds lead over compatriot Kathrin Zettel while Italy's Federica Brignone was third, 1:36 adrift.

Slalom world and Olympic champion Shiffrin finished sixth and World Cup holder Fenninger, winner of the season opener in Soelden, was 12th.

"When I saw the green light, the disappointments of the past came straight back at me. I knew I had to show my skis to the camera but I was not able to do it. I just could not move any longer," Brem said.

"I put my face in the snow and cried."

At 26, she finally had came of age after snatching her first podium places last winter in Are and at the World Cup finals at the end of a season in which she had not been good enough to make the Sochi Olympics.

"More than once I questioned my choices and I even considered quitting. Not qualifying for Sochi was not the turning point of my career but the moment when I realised I needed to change my approach.

"That's when you need to show your strength of character. Either you go ahead or you just put the skis aside and stop," she said.

"I was forced to learn to accept to live and work with the same people who did not call me for the Olympics or the worlds. It's a bitter pill to swallow at the time because you never know where you're going to be four years later.

"But disappointments teach you a lot, they teach you to become selfish. It's hard but that's the way a career goes. Now I'm no longer wondering what the others think of me, I've gone over that. I only go for what's important for me."

Add that she broke her leg in April 2010, as she was entering the Austrian A team, and it is understandable how moved she was after her first victory.