"This is not funny. Bode won the crystal [globe] by the decision of Hujara."
Maier finishes the season with 1,265 points, just 42 ahead of defending champion Austrian Stephan Eberharter, who will not race in the final slalom.
"This is worth as much as my first Olympic gold medal in Nagano, maybe a little more," said Maier, a double Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Cup overall champion.
Maier has always been a resilient sort. At the 1998 Nagano games, he had one of the most spectacular downhill crashes in history only to get back up and win the super-G and giant slalom gold medals in the next few days.
He proved it again when he was pulled from the wreckage when a car hit his motorcycle in Radstadt, Austria, on Aug. 24, 2001.
Maier underwent seven hours of surgery. Doctors said he was close to kidney failure and having the leg amputated. Surgeons inserted screws and a titanium rod to repair his tibia and grafted skin from his left upper arm on his right shin.
He was also badly bruised around his pelvis, and for several days two tennis ball-sized blood clots kept his legs paralyzed.
He had to relearn how to walk. He then underwent a grueling rehab program to be able to stand on his skis again.
Maier had already demonstrated terrifying promise in the handful of races he entered at the end of last season.
Away from the slopes for almost two years, Maier returned to win a super-G, only his fourth race back, and lifted silver in the same event at the worlds a month later.
The Austrian previously won the overall in 1998, 2000 and 2001. Eberharter won the last two seasons when Maier was absent and recovering.
Paerson finished 0.68 seconds behind Austrian winner Marlies Schild, who won in 1 minute, 41.82 seconds, but far in front of her only challenger for the overall title -- Austria's Renate Goetschl.
Goetschl, a speed specialist, finished 24th out of 24 skiers, with a huge 6.10-second deficit.
That left Paerson with an insurmountable 117-point lead over Goetschl with only one race remaining -- Sunday's giant slalom.
Paerson has 1,461 points overall to Goetschl's 1,344.
The 22-year-old Paerson had already wrapped up the slalom and giant slalom season titles.
Half-pipe
France's Mathias Wecxsteen and Marie Martinod won the closing half-pipe events at the World Cup freestyle finals Saturday to claim the specialty titles in the men's and women's competition.
Wecxsteen had a winning score of 89.4 points as he led three French teammates and Canada's Corey Vanular in the men's final.
He captured the half-pipe title with a total of 222 points, 12 ahead of fellow-Frenchman Laurent Favre.
Martinod led Swiss Virginie Faivre both in the closing event and in the Cup standings.
Martinod had a score of 72.0 in Saturday's final. Faivre edged Norway's Kari Traa for second place, 70.4 to 63.4 points.
The French skier commanded the Cup standings with 300 points on a perfect record of three wins in as many races.
The freestyle finals end today with the awarding of moguls titles in the nearby resort of Sauze D'Oulx, in Italy's 2006 Olympic region.
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