top of page

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Alpine Ski World Cup Downhill Preview

Writer's picture: Raúl RevueltaRaúl Revuelta
Garmisch Alpine Ski World Cup
Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Picture: GaPa Tourismus / Marc Hohenleitner

Next Sunday, the last Alpine Ski World Cup Downhill before the Saalbach Alpine World Ski Championships will be held in Garmisch. It's the 6th of 9 Downhill races scheduled on the 2024-2025 Alpine Ski World Cup calendar.


Germany’s highest mountain, Germany’s steepest ski slope - the legendary Kandahar-Downhill racecourse-, or Germany’s most spectacular cable car are some of the reasons to watch the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Alpine Ski World Cup Races next weekend.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany, which borders Austria. It is located at the foot of Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain (2,962 meters a.s.l.).

Garmisch-Partenkirchen the former twin cities "under the Zugspitze", is one of the most famous ski resorts of the whole alpine region. The Bavarian town hosted the Olympic Winter Games in 1936, the Arlberg Kandahar races since 1954, the FIS Ski World Cups since 1970, the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships in 1978 and 2011, and the FIS Alpine Junior World Ski Championships in 2009. For that reason, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is been considered the cradle of ski racing in Germany.




February 2nd Downhill / Men


The Kandahar in Garmisch is considered one of the most demanding race courses in the Alpine Ski World Cup. The slope became one of the five venues for the Arlberg-Kandahar race, named after Frederick Roberts, the Earl of Kandahar.

The Briton Frederick Roberts, Baron Roberts of Kandahar and Waterford, donated a trophy for a ski race in 1911 called the “Challenge Roberts of Kandahar”. The race was held in the Austrian town of St. Anton am Arlberg in the 1920s. Garmisch-Partenkirchen has been the venue for the traditional Arlberg-Kandahar races since 1954.


The Kandahar 2, Men's Downhill start of the Kandahar 2 is located at Kreuzjoch at 1,690 meters above sea level After the Schußanger with its two curves comes a jump into the Himmelreich, where the start of the Women's Super-G start is located. The Waldeck with the highest gradient is a technically demanding traverse. Here a new route has begun since the adaptations in 2008: the Eishang is bypassed via the Ramwiesen, and via the Höllentor it goes back to the original Kandahar in the Hölle (Hell), a steep slope. This is followed by the FIS-Schneise, a diagonal route that, after a left-foot bend, flows into the Tauber-Schuss.



Kandahar Racecourse facts:


  • Start Elevation: 1690 m

  • Finish Elevation: 770 m

  • Vertical Drop: 920 m

  • Length: 2920 m

  • Max. slope: 85 %


Alpine Ski World Cup. Kandahar Men's Downhill track in Garmisch

Dominik Paris won the last Downhill held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in 2021. It was the first win since returning from the ACL injury suffered in 2020 in Kitzbühel.

With 18 victories in Downhill, Dominik Paris is the active male skier who won the most Downhill events in the World Cup. Only Franz Klammer (25), Peter Müller (19), and Stephan Eberharter (18) have won as many World Cup Downhill events among Men as Paris.

The 34-year-old Italian skier's best result in the Downhill this season was 4th place in Wengen.


Throughout the season, the 15 Downhill podiums have been claimed by just eight skiers. Marco Odermatt and Franjo von Allmen have each reached the podium three times. Alexis Monney, Cameron Alexander, and Miha Hrobat have each secured a podium finish twice. Meanwhile, James Crawford, Ryan Cochran-Siegle, and Justin Murisier have each stood on the podium once.


The speed season kicked off at the Birds of Prey racetrack with a big surprise in store. Justin Murisier secured his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory by winning the World Cup Downhill at Beaver Creek. Starting with bib number 3, Murisier skied a solid run from top to bottom with hardly any mistakes. The 32-year-old Swiss skier previously achieved his only podium finish in the Giant Slalom in Alta Badia in 2020. His best Downhill result was 4th place in Bormio last season. Teammate Marco Odermatt finished in second place, just 0.20 seconds behind.


The 57th Saslong Classic in Val Gardena closed with a big bang for the Swiss Team. Marco Odermatt led a 1-2 Swiss podium ahead of teammate Franjo von Allmen. Odermatt won the Downhill thanks to a superb performance in the Ciaslat sector. It was the first victory for Switzerland in Val Gardena since Silvan Zurbriggen's victory in 2010. The defending Downhill and Overall World Cup champion won for the first time on the Saslong racecourse.


The third Downhill of the season ended with the third Swiss double podium. 24-year-old Alexis Monney with start number 19 won the Alpine Ski World Cup Downhill in Bormio. He finished 0.24 hundredths ahead of teammate Franjo von Allmen. Canadian Cameron Alexander rounded up the podium in third place 0.79 seconds behind the Swiss.

Monney showed his potential setting the third-fastest time in the first training session. His previous best World Cup result was 8th place in kitzbühel last season. In Bormio, he celebrates not only his first podium but also his first victory.


The fourth Downhill of the 2024-2025 winter season in Wengen saw the Swiss team claim their fourth one-two finish.

Marco Odermatt claimed in the Lauberhorn his second victory of the season in the Downhill after his win in Val Gardena. He finished ahead of his teammate Franjo von Allmen. Miha Hrobat from Slovenia rounded up the podium in third place.


After winning the season's first four races, Swiss skiers cop four of the first five places in the Downhill standings: Marco Odermatt (365 points), Franjo Von Allmen (272), Justin Murisier (202), and Alexis Monney (200). Miha Hrobat from Slovenia is third with 217 points.

Switzerland have had a skier come second in the five Alpine Ski World Cup Downhill races this season. They can become the first country with six consecutive second-place finishes in Men's World Cup Downhill since Austria did it in six races in a row between November 2002 and November 2003. This is already the longest such streak in Switzerland's history.

Switzerland have nine of the 15 total podiums in the five men's Downhill races of season, including four wins, and five seconds places.


The Austrian Ski Team only achieved five Top-10 places in the first five Downhills of the season.

In the 2023-2024 winter season, the Austrian Ski Team achieved only one podium place (Vincent Kriechmayr second in Kvitfjell), and in the Downhill standings only Kriechmayr (4th) made it into the Top-10 (Stefan Babinsky was 15th). The 33-year-old is the only skier in the team to have ever won a World Cup Downhill. All these facts make the Austria Ski Downhill Team the weakest Downhill team in almost four decades. You have to look back to the 1987-1988 winter season to find similarly dismal performances by the Austrian Downhill skiers.


James Crawford won the last Downhill in Kitzbuehel and can become the first Canadian man to win back-to-back World Cup Downhill races since Steve Podborski won three in a row in the 1980-1981 winter season. Crawford's win in Kitzbühel was his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory.


Alexis Monney finished in second place in Kitzbuehel just 0.08 seconds behind Crawford. It's Monney's third World Cup podium after winning the Downhill and finished third in the Super-G in Bormio last December.


Cameron Alexander finished third in Kitzbuehel and claimed his fifth Alpine Ski World Cup podium, the second this season after finishing third in the Downhill in Bormio in December.

The last time two Canadians stood on the podium was in February 2012 when Jan Hudec won the Chamonix Downhill ahead of Romed Baumann and teammate Erik Guay.

He has one World Cup win, the Kvitfjell Downhill in 2022. Alexander has finished third in three of the last six World Cup Downhill races. He can become the first man to finish third in four out of seven Downhill races

since Michael Walchhofer (AUT) was third four times in six races between November 2024 and January 2005.


Marco Odermatt won the Men’s Downhill Crystal Globe last season. It's Odermatt’s first Downhill Globe. The Swiss ski Ace also won the Super-G title and secured the speed double. The last Swiss skier to win the Downhill Crystal Globe was Beat Feuz, who won four between 2017-2018 and 2020-2021.

The reigning world champion in the Men's Downhill added the World Cup title to his Overall, Super-G, and Giant Slalom Globes. The last man to win at least four World Cup Crystal Globes in a single season was Hermann Maier in 1999-2000 and 2001-2001 (Overall, Downhill, Giant Slalom, and Super-G in both seasons).

The only Swiss man to win at least four World Cup classifications in a single season was Pirmin Zurbriggen in 1986-1987. He won the Overall, Combination, Super-G, Downhill, and Giant Slalom titles.

Odermatt has won seven World Cup races in all disciplines this season and can win at least eight for the third season in a row. He won 13 races in each of the last two seasons. He has won two World Cup Downhill races this season and can win three in a single season for the first time. His only two World Cup Downhill wins before this season both came last season in Wengen.


Franjo von Allmen has finished inside the Top 10 in his last seven Alpine Ski World Cup races. Before that streak began, he had recorded only four Top-10 finishes in the first 18 races of his World Cup career.

Von Allmen's three World Cup Downhill podiums have all come this season and all been second place. He can become the first man since Peter Fill in 2016-2017 to finish second in four World Cup Downhill races in the same season.


Miha Hrobat had two Downhill podiums this season and can become the sixth man representing Slovenia to win a World Cup race, after Bojan Krizaj (8 wins), Rok Petrovic (5), Jure Kosir (3), Zan Kranjec (2) and Andrej Jerman (2). Hrobat has four Top-10 finishes in his last 10 World Cup races. In his 103 Alpine Ski World Cup starts before his last 10 races, he made the Top-10 only once.

Comments


bottom of page