Yugoslavia’s Mateja Svet, 20, won the final...

Yugoslavia’s Mateja Svet, 20, won the final women’s giant slalom race of the season at Saalbach, Austria, and earned the overall World Cup giant slalom title, as favorite Catherine Quittet of France, needing only an average finish at Saalbach to take the crown, instead placed 24th.

Svet, silver medalist in the slalom at Calgary, had to finish at least second to win the title and was helped by the absence of several prominent skiers. Switzerland’s Vreni Schneider, who trailed Quittet by two points, returned from Calgary in a cast and missed the rest of the season. West Germany’s Christa Guetlein Kinshofer, giant slalom silver medalist at Calgary, stayed home because of illness, and Switzerland’s Maria Walliser, who won the bronze medal at Calgary, was out with a knee injury.