Timon Haugan Wins The Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom Event in Val d'Isere

Timon Haugan won the thrilling Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom in Val d'Isere and celebrated his fifth World Cup victory. The Norwegian finished 0.28 seconds ahead of Loic Meillard. His compatriot, Henrik Kristoffersen, took third place, 0.34 seconds behind.

Haugan, 5th in Levi, and 4th in Gurgl, has claimed Top-5 finishes in seven consecutive Slalom World Cup races, which is the longest-running streak in the discipline. It started with his win in Schladming on January 29, 2025. He also finished in 5th position in the World Ski Championships in Saalbach.

Haugan's victory marked Norway's third consecutive Slalom win at Val d'Isere, following Kristoffersen's triumph last season and Pinheiro Braathen's victory in 2022.

The Slalom presented challenging conditions as the slope quickly deteriorated, and the changing light between sun and shade across different sectors heightened the excitement of the race.

“It’s really great, my first win, my first podium this year. It was a very tough race; the second run was very difficult with the tracks and the bumps. Everything was difficult, so I'm extremely happy with the win and with the whole day,” Haugan said.

Timon Haugan is leading the World Cup Slalom standings with 195 points. The winners of the previous Slalom races in Gurgl and Levi, Paco Rassat (DNF1 today, 140) and Lucas Pinheiro Braathen (DNF2, 126), are second and third, respectively.

After winning yesterday the Giant Slalom, Loic Meillard narrowly missed out on the Val d'Isère double, a feat no skier has ever achieved, not even Marcel Hirscher in his prime.

"Definitely a great weekend. Today was definitely not easy on the second run, but I knew we had to push, and it was a good fight. Here, we're used to the mixed conditions, and starting from the back is complicated. That's the difficulty of this slope," Meillard said.

Henrik Kristoffersen claimed his third podium of the season, the first one in Slalom. The reigning Men’s Slalom Crystal Globe champion stood on the Slalom podium 58 times, achieving a total of 98 Alpine Ski World Cup podiums. He needs three more podiums in any discipline to draw level with Marc Girardelli, who lies third on the Men’s all-time list with 101 career World Cup podiums. Ingemar Stenmark holds the record with 163 podiums.

"A mistake on the second run cost way too much time. From there down was really fast; that's the only reason I'm on the podium, because with that mistake, you're really not. But it's better to be fast and make mistakes than to just be slow like my second Giant Slalom run yesterday," Kristoffersen said.