Marcel Hirscher secured gold in front of 31,000 people at the giant slalom event in Adelboden ©Getty Images

Marcel Hirscher of Austria and the United States' Mikaela Shiffrin won gold medals in the giant slalom events at the men's and women's International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup events in Adelboden and Kranjska Gora.

Hirscher took the title in Adelboden, Switzerland, in front of 31,000 spectators after posting a time of 2mins 28.63secs, meaning he has now won six World Cup races this season.

The Sochi 2014 silver medallist did not perform the perfect run on the Chuenisbärgli, but it was still enough to earn him his 51st overall World Cup victory, putting him third in the all-time standings.

Despite this incredible feat, Hirscher was modest about his victory as he chases a seventh consecutive overall World Cup title.

"Once again the luck was on my side," he said.

Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen took silver, his sixth podium finish of the season, finishing just 0.17 seconds behind Hirscher.

Last year's winner in Adelboden, France’s Alexis Pinturault, came third in a time of 2:28.84.

The top three from today's race now occupy the top three in the overall rankings with Hirscher top on 774 points, Kristoffersen second on 660 points and Pinturault 118 points behind in third on 502.

In the women's event, which took place in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora, Shiffrin once again underlined her dominance in women's Alpine skiing with another gold medal, her third in a row.

Despite suffering from illness earlier in the day, the Sochi 2014 gold medal winner and defending World Cup champion managed to record a time of 1:47.40 to claim the Golden Fox trophy, 0.31 seconds ahead of France's Tessa Worley.

Sofia Goggia of Italy, a bronze medallist at the 2017 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland, took her third World Cup medal of the season, finishing in the bronze medal position with a time of 1:48.31.

Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg, who led the giant slalom rankings going into this race, could only finish 11th.

Shiffrin looks increasingly likely to defender her FIS Alpine Ski World Cup title after victory in Slovenia ©Getty Images
Shiffrin looks increasingly likely to defender her FIS Alpine Ski World Cup title after victory in Slovenia ©Getty Images

As reported by CBC, after the race, Shiffrin, who now has six career giant slalom World Cup wins to her name, said: "I am just having a blast racing and I wanted to keep that momentum going.

"It is super fun to ski, I am super psyched about it."

The defending World Cup champion also spoke of the illness she was suffering prior to the race.

"A lot of the girls have been sick so I didn't feel like it was an excuse for today," she said.

"I wanted to come down and charge.

"It's not a very long course so even being a little bit sick I have enough energy for that.

"I am really happy with my skiing.

"I was loose and really aggressive and that's really exciting for me."

Tomorrow sees the athletes compete in the classic slalom events.