Bormio Stelvio Races Preview
Updated: Dec 27, 2022
Bormio is a town and comune in the Province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy at the center of the upper Valtellina valley. This valley is a fundamental point in the history of alpine skiing. This is where champions such as Deborah Compagnoni and Pietro Vitalini started their careers and some of the most beautiful and meaningful pages of alpine skiing were written.
Bormio has a well-earned reputation on the men’s circuit as being one of the most challenging Downhill races in the world with racers facing a dark, fast, bumpy, and icy ride year after year.
Alongside the Streif of Kitzbuhel, the Stelvio slope is considered to be one of the most technical and spectacular slopes all over the world.
Champions of the caliber of Luc Alphand, Stephan Eberharter, Johann Grugger, Lasse Kjus, Hermann Maier, Daron Rahlves, Andreas Schifferer, Hannes Trinkl, Fritz Stobl, Bode Miller, and Michael Walchhofer have triumphed on the “Stelvio”.
It was inaugurated in 1982 for the first edition of the World Series. The course hosted two editions of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, in 1985 and in 2005. It also hosted two World Cup Finals, in 1995 and 2008. Since 1993 the Stelvio has yearly hosted the World Cup Downhill Men.
In the 2026 Winter Olympics the Stelvio will be the official venue for all the Alpine Skiing Men races.
Bormio (ITA)
December 28th Downhill / Men 11:30 CET
December 29th Super-G / Men 11:30 CET
Racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 2255m (Downhill)
Finish Elevation: 1,245 m
Vertical Drop: 1010 m (Downhill)
Distance: 3250m (Downhill)
Max. slope: 63 %
Last season Dominik Paris won the Downhill in Bormio. The 33-year-old Italian skier is the King of the selective and exhausting Stelvio. Bormio means a lot to the Südtiroler as many career highlights, including his first World Cup win, have come in the Italian town. He set the record of victories in Bormio: 6 Downhill races (2012, 2017, 2018, a double in 2019, and 2021) and a Super-G (2018). Paris set in 2021 a new record for most World Cup Downhill wins at a specific ski resort, edging Didier Cuche with five in Kitzbühel.
The only male skier to have achieved more than seven victories in World Cup speed events at a single resort is Aksel Lund Svindal (8 in Lake Louise). Paris is now tied in this ranking with Kjetil Jansrud (7 in Kvitfjell).
Finishing just 0.24 seconds off the winning pace was Overall leader Marco Odermatt.
Rounding out the podium was Niels Hintermann. He finished 0.80 seconds behind Paris.
The day after Aleksander Aamodt Kilde won the Super-G in Bormio.
With bib number 25, Raphael Haaser almost turned the classification upside down. Ultimately, only Kilde stayed out of reach. Haaser finished in second place 0.72 seconds behind Kilde.
Vincent Kriechmayr rounded out Bormio's podium in third place +0.85 behind the Norwegian.
In 2022 Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) won the Downhill title finishing ahead of Beat Feuz. He 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). Kilde has won three of the first four Downhill races of the 2022-2023 World Cup season (lake Louise, Beaver Creek, and Val Gardena).
Kilde has won 17 World Cup races, nine of them Downhills. Only Aksel Lund Svindal (14) and Lasse Kjus (10) have won more Downhill World Cup races than him.
Kilde has yet to achieve a World Cup podium finish in the Downhill in Bormio. His best result at the Stelvio are two fourth-place finishes in December 2019.
Marco Odermatt has finished three time on the podium in the Downhill this World Cup season: third (Lake Louise), second (Beaver Creek), and second again in the second Downhill held in Val Gardena.
Odermatt has achieved seven career podium finishes in the Downhill, but has never win one. Only three male skiers have finished on the podium more times than the Swiss without recording a win in the Downhill: Heinrich Messner (10), Johan Clarey (9), and Mario Scheiber (8).
In his last 15 World Cup events, Odermatt has finished on the podium 14 times. Only in the second Downhill held in Val Gardena he was out the podium with a seventh place.
Dominik Paris has won a record six World Cup Downhill events in Bormio, including five of the last six. Paris recorded his first world cup win in Bormio, a triumph in the Downhill on 29 December 2012.
With 17 victories in Downhill, Dominik Paris is the active male skier to have won the most Downhill events in the World Cup. Paris is one shy of equalling Stephan Eberharter (18) in third place on the men's list for most World Cup downhill wins. Franz Klammer (25) and Peter Müller (19) are in first and second place.
In 2020 Matthias Mayer lead a 1-2 Austrian Podium in Bormio. In a spectacular Downhill, Mayer edged teammate Vincent Kriechmayr by +0.04 seconds for an Austrian 1-2 finish. Urs Kryenbuehl finished in third place +0.06 seconds behind Mayer.
He has recorded three top-five finishes in the Downhill this World Cup season. Mayer finished in fourth place in the first two Downhills of the season in Lake Louise and Beaver Creek and was third place in the first Downhill held in Val Gardena.
Vincent Kriechmayr won the first Downhill held in Val Gardena on December 15. It was his 13th victory in the World Cup (28th podium), the sixth in the Downhill.
In 2020 Kriechmayr finished in second place in Bormio in the Downhill.
Listen to the following Podcast if you want to know more about one of the toughest Downhills on the World Cup Calendar.
In the last nine men's World Cup Super-G events, Austrian (9), Norwegian (7) and Swiss (7) skiers claimed 23 of the 27 podium finishes. USA's Travis Ganong (third in the second SG held in Beaver Creek last season), Canada's James Crawford (second in Kvitfjell in March 2022) and Broderick Thompson (third in the first SG held in Beaver Creek last season), and Alexis Pinturault (third in the SG held in Beaver Creek) are the exceptions.
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde won the last World Cup Super-G held in Beaver Creek. Kilde has won eight World Cup Super-G events, most among active male skiers. He can join Marc Girardelli (9) for fifth in the all-time record for Super-G wins.
The Norwegian has won five of the last eight men's World Cup Super-G events. In the other three events, he recorded two second places and one fourth place.
Marco Odermatt won the first Super-G of the season in Lake Louise.
The 25-year-old Swiss star has won five super-G World Cup events in his career, third-most among Swiss men, behind Pirmin Zurbriggen (10) and Didier Cuche (6).
Odermatt has achieved nine World Cup podiums in the Super-G in his last 12 participations in the discipline.
He can become the first Swiss man to win a World Cup super-G event in Bormio. Only one Swiss man has reached a World Cup Super-G podium in the Stelvio, Didier Defago on 13 March 2008.
Matthias Mayer has won three World Cup races in the Super-G.
Mayer recorded 10 Super-G podium finishes in the World Cup since his last win on 1 December 2019 in Lake Louise, including a third place in Canada this season.
Mayer (22) can tie Pirmin Zurbriggen (23) and Didier Cuche (23) for fifth place with the most World Cup podium finishes in the men's Super-G.
Vincent Kriechmayr has won seven World Cup Super-G events, second most among Austrian men, behind Hermann Maier (24).
Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (5), Marco Odermatt (4) and Vincent Kriechmayr (3) have won each of the last 12 men's Super-G World Cup events since Ryan Cochran-Siegle won in Bormio on 29 December 2020.
Cochran-Siegle beats Vincent Kriechmayr and Adrian Smiseth Sejersted to become the first American winner on the Stelvio since Bode Miller in 2007.