Maze not only broke the overall score record among women and men, she has also become the best-paid skier of this season, earning CHF 701,797 (EUR 573,646) in prize money alone. Her closest follower in terms of earnings was Austrian Marcel Hirscher, who won the the World Cup in men's competition and earned some CHF 535,000. At CHF 233,070, the second-best earner among women, Austrian Anna Fenninger, made nearly half a million francs less than Maze.

Maze has won 11 races this season, she was on the podium 24 times and won races in all five disciplines. She was in the top ten in 32 out of 35 races.

She scored a total of 2,414 points this season, more than any skier ever before. In comparison, the entire Slovenian men's team scored 346 points and the women tallied 240 points.

Slovenian fans are thrilled to welcome the skiing champion home. Yesterday, a welcoming party was being held at Maze's home town of Črna na Koroškem (N), which has been renamed Tina na Koroškem for a day in her honour.

Despite rain and snow between 2,000 and 3,000 people gathered to welcome Maze and her team. Fans flocked in from across the country and also from Austria. Today a large open-air party for her and other winter athletes will be held in Ljubljana.

Maze have already talked to reporters in Maribor, saying that it was nice to be home and surrounded by the people who made it possible for her to split from the national team and enabled her to be so successful.

"The season was exceptional and I am very proud to have been able to complete it as successfully as I had started. All five team members were essential for the success," said Maze.

She thanked her coach and partner Andrea Massi for starting the Team to aMaze and the remaining members of her team. Massi thanked the people who hired him to be a part of the Slovenian national skiing team and also to the sponsors who made it possible for him and Maze to start their own team a decade ago.

One of the most successful Slovenian skiers of all time, Jure Košir, told the STA yesterday that Maze's success will attract children to the sport and will have a positive effect on skiing in Slovenia in general.