Manuel Feller's second place in Saalbach capped off a dominant season for the Austrian skier. He was Mr. Consistency finishing inside the Top-5 in all ten Men's World Cup Slalom events this season, including four victories in Gurgl, Adelboden, Wengen, and Palisades Tahoe. He is the first man to win four World Cup Slalom events in a single season since Marcel Hirscher won five times in 2018-2019.
Feller secured the World Cup Slalom Crystal Globe after the World Cup Slalom event in Kranjska Gora was canceled on March 6th.
31-year-old Manuel Feller became the oldest winner of the Slalom Crystal Globe on the Men's side since Ivica Kostelic won in 2010-2011 at the same age.
It’s Feller’s biggest career achievement after winning the silver medal in Slalom at the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Before now the closest he came to winning a World Cup Crystal Globe was in 2021-2022 when he finished runner-up in the Slalom standings 90 points behind Henrik Kristoffersen.
Austria has won the Slalom World Cup Crystal Globe 17 times. The last time Austria won the Men’s Slalom World Cup standings was in the 2020-2021 winter season when Marco Schwarz clinched the World Cup Slalom title. Feller etches his name in the record book alongside other Slalom title victors from his country: Marcel Hirscher (6), Benjamin Raich (2), Thomas Sykora (2), Reinfried Herbst (1), Rainer Schoenfelder (1), Thomas Stangassinger (1) and Alfred Matt (1).
On the Alpine Ski World Cup Premiere in Gurgl, in the first Slalom of the season, in front of 8,300 ski fans, Manuel Feller gave Austria the first victory of the 2023-2024 winter. Manuel Feller tops the Austrian podium with Marco Schwarz second (+0.23) and Michael Matt third (+1.05).
Before Gurgl Austrian skiers had not achieved a victory in the previous 17 events of the Men's Slalom World Cup, a streak that dates back to Johannes Strolz's victory in Adelboden on January 9, 2022. Austria ends in Gurgl one of their longest victory droughts in the Slalom event since going on a 22-event winless streak from March 1984 to February 1986.
The Austrian ski team celebrated in Gurgl its first 1-2-3 podium at the Alpine Ski World Cup since 2015. In the Downhill in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Hannes Reichelt led an Austrian podium with Romed Baumann and Matthias Mayer.
In Slalom it is the first time three Austrians have stood on the Alpine Ski World Cup podium since January 2001 in Wengen, when the Austrian team destroyed the competition. Benjamin Raich, Rainer Schönfelder, Mario Matt, Florian Seer, and Kilian Albrecht finished first, second, third, fourth, and fifth respectively.