She was second after the first of two runs behind Slovakian and defending World Cup champion Petra Vlhová, the only skier to dip under one minute.

A mix of a strong final run and time lost by Vlhová gave Hector her third gold of the season, recording a combined time of 2min 03.63sec.

Hector has had a season to remember so far, having only held one World Cup race victory to her name before this winter.

It is also her fifth podium of the season and eighth of her career.

Vlhová was still far in front of the rest of the field, winning silver 0.12 seconds behind the 29-year-old Swedish skier.

France's Tessa Worley was 0.52 seconds behind Hector for the bronze medal, her third giant slalom podium of the season.

It was enough to put her into second in the discipline standings, 95 points behind Hector and six in front of American Mikaela Shiffrin, who could only finish fifth today.

The 2019-2020 overall World Cup winner Federica Brignone of Italy was fourth, while Norway's Thea Louise Stjernesund was sixth after posting the second-quickest final run.

Marta Bassino of Italy, Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway, Slovenia's Ana Bucik and Poland's Maryna Gasienca-Daniel completed the top 10.

Bucik posted the quickest second run after narrowly making the cut for the top 30.

Shiffrin remains top of the overall standings with 1,026 points, 17 in front of Vlhová on 1,009 who has closed the gap following performance today.

Italy's Olympic downhill champion Sofia Goggia missed the latest race after crashing, with her injury status still not clear going into next month's Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, but remains in third place.

Hector leapfrogged Brignone into fourth in the overall standings with her win.