The 57th edition of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup kicks on the weeend with the Opening Giant Slalom races in Sölden, Austria, and will end in mid-March with the World Cup Finals in Soldeu, Granvalira, Andorra.
42 individual races at 20 ski resorts await the Women, including eleven Downhills, nine Super-Gs, ten Giant Slaloms, eleven Slaloms and one Parallel competition.
Also the Men’s programme comprises 42 races in 21 ski resorts, including fourteen Downhills, seven Super-Gs, ten Giant Slaloms, ten Slaloms, and 1 Parallel event.
Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt are the the defending Overall Champions with Petra Vlhova and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde as the main challengers.
Last March, the ski racing gathered to see out the season in Courchevel-Meribel and watch Marco Odermatt (Switzerland) and Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) being awarded the big Crystal Globes as winners of the 2021-2022 Alpine Ski World Cup Overall title.
Mikaela Shiffrin is looking for her fifth Overall Title. The American skier is one of the four active female skiers to have won the Big Crystal Global along with Switzerland’s Lara Gut-Behrami (2016), Italy’s Federica Brignone (2020) and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova (2021).
Mikaela Shiffrin returned to the Alpine Ski World Cup top position after finishing second and fourth the last two seasons. The US skier won the Overall Crystal Globe for the fourth time (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, and 2021-2022) matching Lindsey Vonn. Only Annemarie Moser-Pröll (6) have won more times the Overall World Cup Title.
Mikaela Shiffrin had recorded 14 podiums -1 in Downhill, 4 in Super-G, 4 in Giant Slalom, and 5 in Slalom-, and five World Cup victories in the 2021-2022 season (1 in Downhill, 2 in Giant Slalom, and 2 in Slalom).
Shiffrin has won 12 World Cup Crystal Globes: six in the Slalom, four in the overall, one in the Super-G and one in the Giant Slalom. Only three other female skiers have won as many World Cup Crystal Globes: Lindsey Vonn (20), Annemarie Moser-Pröll (16) and Vreni Schneider (14).
Last season, in Schladming, Mikaela Shiffrin won her 47th World Cup slalom event, breaking the record for most World Cup victories in a single discipline set by Ingemar Stenmark (Giant Slalom, 46) in 1989.
The 27-year-old ski star (66 in Slalom) is level with Lindsey Vonn (66 in Downhill) for most women's World Cup podiums in a single discipline.
Shiffrin has won 74 World Cup events, ranking her in third place all-time behind Ingemar Stenmark (86) and Lindsey Vonn (82). This season she could equal the women's record of winning at least one World Cup event in 11 successive seasons, by Vreni Schneider (1984-85 to 1994-95) and Renate Götschl (1996-1997 to 2006-2007).
Only Ingemar Stenmark (155), Marcel Hirscher (138), and Lindsey Vonn (137), have claimed more podiums in the World Cup than Mikaela Shiffrin (120).
The 2021 World Cup Champion, Petra Vlhova, will be Shiffrin's main contender in the overall standings next winter.
Petra Vlhová won last season's Slalom Crystal Globe and finished second in the overall standings. The Slovakian also picked up Olympic gold in the Slalom at the Beijing Winter Games. It's the second time she picked up the Slalom title after winning it in the 2019-2020 season.
Vlhová claimed six World Cup event wins last season, joint-most among women alongside Sofia Goggia. Mikaela Shiffrin recorded five event wins. The 27-year-old is one of three women to have claimed at least one World Cup victory in each of the previous seven seasons, alongside Mikaela Shiffrin (last 10) and Federica Brignone (last 7).
She finished on the podium in eight of the nine World Cup slalom events last season. She claimed five wins, finished runner-up to Mikaela Shiffrin twice, and third in Courchevel-Meribel. She only missed the podium once when she finished 4th in Are. Only three women claimed more than seven top-two finishes in World Cup slalom events in a single season: Vreni Schneider (9 in 1993-1994), Shiffrin (9 in 2018-2019, 8 in 2017-2018), and Janica Kostelic (8 in 2000-2001).
Vlhová has equaled Anja Pärson (both 17) in sixth place on the women's list for most World Cup Slalom victories. Janica Kostelic (20) is in fifth place.
On the Men's side, Marco Odermatt is the 2021-2022 Men's Overall World Cup Winner. After finishing runner-up last season, he finally can celebrate his very first big globe. He is the fifth Swiss man to win the Overall, after Peter Lüscher (1978-1979), Pirmin Zurbriggen (1983-1984, 1986-1987, 1987-1988, and 1989-1990), Paul Accola (1991-1992), and Carlo Janka (2009-2010).
The 25-year-old Swiss star had recorded 16 podiums -4 in Downhill, 4 in Super-G, and 8 in Giant Slalom-, and seven World Cup victories last season (including two in the Super-G, in Beaver Creek and Wengen). The only Swiss man to record more World Cup wins in a single season was Pirmin Zurbriggen, 11 in the 1986-1987 season.
Marco Odermatt was the absolute dominator of the discipline. He finished on the podium in all eight World Cup Giant Slalom events this season: 5 wins (Sölden, Val d'Isère, Alta Badia, Adelboden and Meribel-Courchevel), 2 second places (Alta Badia and Kranjska Gora) and 1 third place (Kranjska Gora).
The last skier to claim a podium finish in all World Cup Giant Slalom events contested in a single season was Marcel Hirscher in the 2017-2018 season (7 races, 7 podiums, 6 wins).
To round a perfect season the Swiss also won Olympic gold in this discipline in Beijing 2022.
The 24-year-old Swiss ace has claimed 11 World Cup event wins (7 in Giant Slalom, and 4 in Super-G).
Since Austria's legend Marcel Hirscher retired in 2019, no male skier has managed to retain the Overall title.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, runner-up in last season's Overall standings and winner of the Overall Crystal Globe in 2020, will be Odermatt's main contender in the overall standings next winter.
He won the Downhill and Super-G crystal globes in the 2021-2022 season. He is the ninth man to win both speed globes in a single season and the first since Kjetil Jansrud in the 2014-2015 season.
Kilde won the Downhill title finishing ahead of Beat Feuz. The Swiss athlete just missed his fifth Crystal Globe in the Downhill by 13 points. Feuz failed to win his fifth successive downhill crystal globe. The only man to collect five downhill globes is Franz Klammer, but the Austrian did not achieve this in successive seasons (1974-1975 to 1977-1978 and 1982-1983).
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde is the fourth Norwegian man to win the Downhill Crystal Globe, after Lasse Kjus (1998-1999), Aksel Lund Svindal (2012-2013, 2013-2014), and Kjetil Jansrud (2014-2015).
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (3) is the only man to record more than two World Cup Downhill wins last season, claiming the win in Beaver Creek, Wengen, and Kitzbühel. He became the fourth Norwegian winner on the Streif (Kitzbühel), after Åtle Skårdal (1990), Lasse Kjus (1999, 2004) and Kjetil Jansrud (2015).
Kilde claimed seven World Cup wins in total this season, equal to the Norwegian record by Kjetil Jansrud (7 in 2014-2015) and Aksel Lund Svindal (7 in 2015-2016).
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde had secured the crystal globe in the Super-G in the last race before the Finals in Kvitfjell. It's the second time he win the Super-G title, after winning it in the 2015-2016 season.
Kilde was the seventh skier to win the Super-G crystal globe more than once, and the third from Norway after Aksel Lund Svindal (5) and Kjetil Jansrud (3).
Kilde won four World Cup Super-G wins last season, in Beaver Creek, Val Gardena, Bormio, and Kvitfjell. He joins the exclusive group of male skiers with more than three Super-G wins in a single season with Hermann Maier (4 in 1997-1998, 1998-1999, and 1999-2000) and Svindal (4 in 2012-2013).
At the Beijing Winter Games, Kilde took bronze in the Super-G behind gold medallist Matthias Mayer and silver medallist Ryan Cochran-Siegle.
In 2021, at Lenzerheide Finals, Alexis Pinturault celebrated his birthday with a victory in the Giant Slalom and grabbing the Overall and Giant Slalom Crystal Globes. He is one of three Frenchmen to have won the overall crystal globe, alongside Jean-Claude Killy (1966/67, 1967/68) and Luc Alphand (1996/97).
Last season, Pinturault failed to win a single World Cup event for the first time since 2010-2011. The French skier had claimed at least one World Cup win in 10 successive seasons from 2011/12 to 2020/21.
Pinturault can become the sixth male skier to win a World Cup event in at least 11 different seasons, after Ingemar Stenmark (13), Marc Girardelli (12), Aksel Lund Svindal (12), Benjamin Raich (12) and Alberto Tomba (11). Dominik Paris can also achieve this feat.
Pinturault has won 34 World Cup events, ranking him in ninth place on the all-time men's list. Svindal and Raich (both 36) share seventh place.
The Men's Giant Slalom crystal globe was won by a French skier on four previous occasions: Killy in 1966-1967 and 1967-1968, Patrick Russel in 1970-1971, and Frederic Covili in 2001-2002.
Alexis Pinturault finished in the top-five in each of the ten Giant Slalom events of the 2020-2021 season. He claimed three successive wins in Alta Badia and Adelboden (2).
He claimed four Giant Slalom wins in a World Cup season for the second time, after 2015-2016.
Pinturault has won nine World Cup Globes, one overall, one in the Giant Slalom, six in the Alpine combined and one in the Parallel Event.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in the top three of the overall standings six times (second in 2016, third in 2017, second in 2018, third in 2019, third in 2020, and third again in 2022).
The Norwegian has won the Slalom Crystal Globe three times (2016, 2020, and 2022). In 2020 he was six points ahead of Alexis Pinturault of France when the final two Giant Slaloms of the season, including the finale scheduled for Cortina d'Ampezzo, were cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. The cancellations gave the season title in Giant Slalom (as well as the title in Slalom over Clément Noël by two points) to Kristoffersen.