The 27-year-old clocked a winning time of 1min 21.34sec to defeat the rest of the field at the Swiss resort and top the podium.

It means the Austrian has added the senior world title 10 years after claiming the world junior super-G crown in 2007.

"The course set suited me really well today," said Schmidhofer.

"I should thank the Italian coaches who set the course because it was ideal for me together with the snow conditions.

"It's just a perfect day."

After two days of heavy snow cancelled downhill training for both men and women yesterday, today saw ideal conditions.

Tina Weirather won silver for Liechtenstein in 1:21.67 as Switzerland's home favourite Lara Gut had to settle for bronze.

Gut, the reigning overall FIS World Cup champion, has now won five World Championship medals but still has not tasted gold.

She clocked 1:21.70 for bronze today to edge Germany's former Olympic giant slalom champion Viktoria Rebensburg into fourth.

Two big names skied out of contention, with American Lindsey Vonn and Austria's Anna Veith both missing gates.

The men's super-G will be the second medal event of the Championships tomorrow.