BORMIO, Italy (AFP) - An American duo were the talk of the World Cup finals for the first time in 25 years here Thursday as action finally hit the slopes following two days of cancellations.

For the traditional alpine superpowers Austria and Switzerland, however, there was unexpected success and disappointment, respectively, as Swiss star Didier Cuche lost the super-G crown by a single point.

US ski star Bode Miller, the 2005 champion, secured his second overall title after main rival Cuche pulled out of Saturday's slalom, the final men's race of the season.

Miller's 12th-place finish in the final super-G, where Cuche dramatically failed to take any points, had already boosted his overall tally to 191 points.

American Lindsey Vonn then claimed a surprise second place in the final women's super-G, won by Swiss Fabienne Suter, to boost her overall lead on German rival Maria Riesch to 197 points.

Riesch's sixth place finish secured her the super-G crown.

With two races remaining, and Cuche only racing in Friday's giant slalom, Miller is mathematically assured of arguably the biggest prize in alpine skiing.

Vonn has yet to officially secure the title but she needs to only finish among the top 15 in either the slalom, Friday, or the giant slalom on Saturday - where each victory is worth 100 points - to secure the crown.

The last time Americans won both the men's and women's overall titles in the same year was in 1983 when Tamara McKinney and Phil Mahre dominated the World Cup series.

It is a fitting end to a season for Miller, who was slammed in the US media following his disastrous Olympics campaign at Turin in 2006.

Overhauling his entire racing and training philosophy this season has helped the maverick skier to notch up six victories and 11 podium places, amassing most of his points in the downhill, and the two-discipline super-combined - a title he collected last month.

He won three downhills at Bormio, Wengen and Kvitfjell and the combined at Kitzbuehel, Austria and the super-combined races held at Chamonix and Val d'Isere in France.

"I've had races that I was really happy with, and some races this year that were really great," said Miller, who also overtook the previous US record for wins on the World Cup, held by Mahre with 27.

Miller now has 31 victories in the series, and suggested it is only the beginning: "The programme that I put together I was really proud of. I think we did some amazing things, but there's definitely a lot more to go."

Vonn, 23, secured the women's downhill title weeks ago. She finished as the season's 'speed queen' with over a 300-point cushion on Austrian veteran Renate Goetschl.

"I think it's great," Miller told AFP when asked about Vonn's impending triumph. "It's been a long time since a US girl has won the title. She's been very consistent all year."

Cuche's collapse handed the super-G crown to Austrian Hannes Reichelt, who started the race with a 99-point deficit to his Swiss rival but won the race to claim 100 precious points.

"I gave myself about a five percent chance of winning the title before the race," admitted Reichelt, who timed 1min 45sec to edge Switzerland's Didier Defago by 0.01sec. "No one thought Cuche wouldn't pick up any points."

Cuche only had to finish 15th to claim the points he needed to retain the super-G lead.

In the end, it was teammate Daniel Albrecht who pushed Cuche off provisional 15th spot to 16th after he finished 11th despite having been told to go slow by the Swiss coaches.

Cuche would not blame Albrecht, and said: "I knew Reichelt had taken the lead and that I had to do enough to stay on my skis, I tried to play it too tactically. If there's one idiot on the mountain today, it's me."

The only consolation for Switzerland was Suter's victory in the women's final super-G.