The Austrian skier with the cheetah pattern on the side of her helmet is fast even when she almost falls.

Anna Fenninger recovered from a near-wipeout late in her run to win the women's giant slalom title at the world championships Thursday, while American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin finished eighth.

Leading after the opening run, Fenninger posted a combined time of 2 minutes, 19.16 seconds to beat Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany by 1.40 seconds. Sweden's Jessica Lindell-Vikarby was third.

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Fenninger was cruising along when her ski tips almost crossed, lurching her forward. She somehow regained her balance, stayed on course and won her second race at worlds. Fenninger also captured the super-G in the opening event.

"I made a big mistake, and I thought, 'I can't stay in the course,'" Fenninger said. "I was fighting and going back into the course. When I came into the finish line, I can't believe I won. Amazing."

Just that kind of world championships for Fenninger, where everything is going right. She also has a silver medal in the downhill.

Slovenia's Tina Maze wound up fifth, ending her quest to earn a medal in every event at Beaver Creek worlds. She's earned two golds and a silver so far, with the women's slalom Saturday.

Exhaustion finally caught up to Maze as she leaned over on her ski poles after finishing her run.

"My energy was not enough to be on the podium. I just couldn't bring out more," Maze said.

After a shaky opening run, Lindsey Vonn held nothing back on her second pass in her final event in front of a hometown crowd. She even had the lead for a little bit, before slipping to 14th, 3.22 seconds behind Fenninger.

"I really risked everything," said Vonn, who had boyfriend Tiger Woods on the sideline for her race. "I let it go. I'm really happy with my run.

"It's nice to end these championships on a positive note. I tried my best at these whole championships '€” not every run worked out."

Vonn earned one medal '€” bronze in the super-G '€” at this version of worlds.

Meanwhile, Shiffrin had a solid showing in her first individual event of these championships. Her only regret? She wishes she would've attacked the course more in her first run. She had too big of deficit to make up.

That said, Shiffrin insisted there wasn't any added pressure or nerves as she competed in her backyard.

"It's my job to perform," said Shiffrin, who's from nearby Eagle-Vail.

There were several big names that didn't finish the first run, including Eva-Maria Brem of Austria and Lara Gut of Switzerland.

"That's GS," Gut said. "You have to risk everything."

And with that, Gut's world championships were complete. She departs with a bronze medal in the downhill.

"Coming here, everybody knew on this slope I could be really fast. I was fast sometime, but not enough," Gut said. "I think I could've done more, but in the end, you need luck. You need everything."

Switzerland's Dominique Gisin made a quick recovery after cracking the tibia bone in her right knee last month and finished 19th in the giant slalom.

"I wish I could've skied a little more free in my mind, but at the end, I'm very, very thankful to my knees that they were so good (to me)," said Gisin, who tied with Maze for the Olympic downhill gold at the 2014 Sochi Games. "There will be other races this season. ... I hope to finally reach the top again." (***)

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