On the weekend, the world’s fastest women skiers will once again gather on St. Anton to race in the challenging “Karl Schranz” racecourse. The new programme in St. Anton includes two Super-Gs instead of one Downhill and one Super-G (updated 13.01.2023).
St. Anton (AUT)
January 14th Super-G / Women, 11:00 CET
January 15th Super-G / Women, 11:30 CET
St. Anton is located in the Austrian state of Tyrol, in the valley of the Rosanna River, in the westernmost tip of Austria near the border with Switzerland.
In 1927, winter sports pioneer Sir Arnold Lunn came to St. Anton where he met the legendary Hannes Schneider. Together with Schneider, Lunn decided to organize a new Alpine competition in St. Anton in the year 1928. It involved a Downhill and a Slalom race, with the outcome determined by combining the competitor’s times for the two races in a single result. Sir Arnold Lunn is credited with creating Alpine ski racing and St. Anton was where he did it.
The Kandahar Race takes its name from the Roberts of Kandahar Challenge Cup, a ski race first held in Crans-Montana for a trophy donated by Field Marshal Earl Frederick Sleigh Roberts of Kandahar. The first race organized by Arnold Lunn took place in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, in 1911.
The First Arlberg Kandahar Race was held in St. Anton in Galzig Mountain on March 3rd and 4th, 1928.
The races named after the two original organizers of the race, the Ski-Club Arlberg in Austria and the British Kandahar Ski Club in Mürren, Switzerland.
Founded in 1901, the Arlberg Ski Club is the first Austrian winter sports club and one of the oldest in the world.
In 1929 and 1930, the Arlberg-Kandahar Race was held in St. Anton. From 1931, the races were alternately held at St. Anton and Mürren. In 1948, Chamonix, France, became the third host, followed by Sestrière, Italy, in 1951 and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany in 1954. Until the introduction of the World Cup in 1967, the Kandahar races were the most important Alpine ski races besides the Winter Olympics and the World Championships
St. Anton was also the venue for the Alpine Ski World Championships in 2001, an event that marked the process of modernization of the ski resort and a series of improvements in the destination that make the experience for visitors significantly improved.
A process that has continued in recent years. The 2016-2017 season marked a turning point in Arlberg's history with the creation of the largest interconnected ski area in Austria and one of the five largest ski domains in the world: the Ski Arlberg.
Racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 2023 m (DH) / 1940 m (SG)
Finish Elevation: 1342 m (DH-SG)
Vertical Drop: 681 m (DH) / 598 (SG)
Distance: 2068 m (DH) / 1735 (SG)
Average slope: 35%
Maximum slope: 88%
In 2021 Sofia Goggia’s high-risk skiing was rewarded with a dominating win in a St. Anton Women's Downhill.
Coming down with bib number 5, Goggia attacked the Karl Schranz racecourse and left no doubt that her time of 1:24:06 would withstand anyone’s chance to take the victory.
Austrian Tamara Tippler came in second place +0.96 off the top mark.
Breezy Johnson finished in third place +1.04 behind Goggia.
In 2021 Lara Gut-Behrami won the last Women's Super-G held in St Anton am Arlberg. Despite a massive error in the last 3rd section, her speed made her able to win the race.
In a tightly-contested event, The Swiss edge Italian Marta Bassino by 0.16 seconds. Coming in third was speed queen Corinne Suter a mere 0.20 seconds behind.