Leading the group of top female skiers in the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is Mikaela Shiffrin, a record-holder with more than 100 victories. Federica Brignone and Lara Gut-Behrami, along with Lindsey Vonn, round out the group of active skiers in this elite selection.

Katja Seizinger led the individual medal table in Nagano 1998, with two gold medals and a bronze, while Hermann Maier was the most successful male skier, with two gold medals.

The Games were the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics, the first and only one to be held two years after the previous Winter Games, and the most recent to be held in a small town. The Games were the second Winter Games hosted in Norway, after the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo.

Downhill is considered the premier discipline and is the longest and, after the slalom, second-oldest alpine skiing competition. Since its inception in 1967, Downhill has been an integral part of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup.