Who to Watch? Beaver Creek Men's Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom

The 2025–2026 Men's FIS Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom season will continue in Beaver Creek, on December 7.

Beaver Creek (USA)

December 7th Giant Slalom / Women   1 Run 10:00 LOC / 18:00 CET - 2 Run 13:00 LOC / 21:00 CET

The Birds of Prey course in Beaver Creek first hosted a World Cup Giant Slalom in November 1999. Since then, a total of 18 Giant Slalom World Cup races have been held there.

With five wins, Ted Ligety has the most Giant Slalom victories in Beaver Creek. Marcel Hirscher has won three times. No other skier has won here more than once.

Thomas Tumler pulled off a surprise win in the 2024 World Cup Giant Slalom in Beaver Creek. This was his first victory in any discipline in his 12-season career on the World Cup circuit. Lucas Braathen Pinheiro came second, and Zan Kranjec finished third.

The Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom in Copper Mountain brought another first-time winner. After 77 starts, 34-year-old Stefan Brennsteiner achieved his first World Cup triumph in the second Giant Slalom of the season in Colorado. Thanks to a superb first run, he beat Henrik Kristoffersen by just 0.95 seconds. Croatian Filip Zubcic rounded up the podium in third place, 1.00 seconds off the pace.

Brennsteiner has previously achieved four World Cup podium finishes in the Giant Slalom discipline: third place in Bansko in February 2021, third place in Kranjska Gora in March 2021, second place in Kranjska Gora in March 2022, and third place in Val d'Isère in December 2024.

Stefan Brennsteiner took the lead in the Giant Slalom World Cup standings with 150 points after his victory in Copper Mountain. Marco Schwarz is in second place with 130 points, followed by Henrik Kristoffersen in third place with 116 points.

Copper Mountain ended the streak of nine consecutive Giant Slalom races that saw a Swiss athlete step on a podium. The previous podium with no Swiss skiers happened in the 2024-2025 winter season opener in Soelden, when Alexander Steen Olsen won ahead of his compatriots Henrik Kristoffersen and Atle Lie McGrath.

Marco Schwarz finished second in Soelden and fourth in Copper Mountain. The last time he finished on the Giant Slalom World Cup podium before Soelden was almost two years ago, on 18 December 2023, in Alta Badia. Soelden was the sixth time in his career that he finished on the podium in a Giant Slalom event, marking his 24th Alpine Ski World Cup podium.

Last season, the 30-year-old Austrian skier made his comeback after a serious injury. At the end of 2023, he was leading the overall World Cup standings when a crash in Bormio left him with a torn cruciate ligament. He spent nearly a year sidelined but showed promising signs of recovery last season, despite it being a hard and painful time. He struggled a lot and felt the most pressure from himself.

Henrik Kristoffersen finished in second position in the Giant Slalom in Copper Mountain. He stood on the Giant Slalom podium 37 times, achieving a total of 96 Alpine Ski World Cup podiums.

During the 2024-2025 winter season, the 31-year-old Norwegian skier achieved four podium finishes in Giant Slalom and won a race in Kranjska Gora. It was Kristoffersen's 8th World Cup victory in the Giant Slalom. His victory takes Kristoffersen to 12th place in the all-time Men's Giant Slalom World Cup winners list, ahead of Pirmin Zurbriggen, Marc Girardelli, Phil Mahre, Massimiliano Blardone, Piero Gros, and Jean-Claude Killy, all of whom have seven wins. Kristoffersen surpassed in 2021 Kjetil André Aamodt (6) for most World Cup Giant Slalom wins in total among Norwegian skiers.

In Copper Mountain, Filip Zubcic claimed his first Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom podium in almost two years. His last top-three result prior to Colorado was achieved in Adelboden in January 2024.

Zubcic is the most successful World Cup Giant Slalom athlete from Croatia, men or women, with three World Cup wins, 12 podiums, and 39 Top-10 finishes.

Last season, Marco Odermatt was again the absolute dominator of the Giant Slalom discipline. The reigning Olympic Champion won the Men's Giant Slalom Crystal Globe for the fourth consecutive time. Henrik Kristoffersen and Loic Meillard placed second and third in the standings for the discipline.

Odermatt (2021-2022, 2022-2023, 2023-2024, and 2024-2025) became the second Swiss male skier to win the Giant Slalom World Cup standings at least four times, after Michael von Grüningen.

If Marco Odermatt wins the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe in the 2025-2026 winter season, he will tie Ted Ligety for third place on the record list, with each having won five Globes. The record is held by Ingemar Stenmark with seven Globes, followed by Marcel Hirscher with six.

Marco Odermatt has achieved 27 victories in Giant Slalom Alpine Ski World Cup races, ranking him third on the all-time list, behind Ingemar Stenmark with 46 wins and Marcel Hirscher with 31 wins.

Since his first Giant Slalom World Cup win on December 7, 2020, in Santa Caterina, Marco Odermatt has won more than half of the races in which he has competed: 27 out of 46.

With eight World Cup wins last season, three discipline Crystal Globes (Downhill, Super-G, and Giant Slalom), and another Overall World Cup title, Marco Odermatt has once again demonstrated he is the most consistent and therefore the best ski racer of our era for the fourth consecutive time.

He finished the 2024-2025 winter season with 13 Crystal Globes (4 Overall, 2 in Downhill, 3 in Super-G, and 4 in Giant Slalom). With 13 Globes, Marco Odermatt has become the fourth most successful men's skier of all time. Marcel Hirscher with 20 Globes leads the way, Ingemar Stenmark is second with 18, and Hermann Maier is fourth with 14.

Marco Odermatt kicked off the new season with another victory in the Men's Alpine Ski World Cup Opener in Soelden.

Soelden also meant Marco Odermatt has overtaken Alberto Tomba on the all-time list of World Cup podiums in all disciplines. With 89 Top-3 finishes, Odermatt is now three podium finishes away from equalling Benjamin Raich for sixth place on the Men's all-time list. Last season, Odermatt became the most decorated Swiss skier of all time with his 84th World Cup podium, surpassing the legendary Pirmin Zurbriggen.

The 28-year-old Swiss skier is aiming for his fifth consecutive big Crystal Globe. If he achieves this, he will tie for second place on the all-time list with Marc Girardelli from Luxembourg, who won five non-consecutive titles between 1984 and 1993. The record is held by Marcel Hirscher, who claimed eight consecutive titles from 2012 to 2019.

Odermatt has won nine discipline globes, a total exceeded by only five male skiers. Ingemar Stenmark leads with 15, followed by Marcel Hirscher with 12, and Marc Girardelli, Pirmin Zurbriggen, and Hermann Maier each with 10.

Like in 2024, Atle Lie McGrath was again on the Soelden podium in third place. This was the fourth time he had achieved a podium finish in the Giant Slalom at the Alpine Ski World Cup. Atle Lie McGrath claimed his second podium finish of the season in the Slalom event held in Gurgl last Saturday.

In Copper Mountain he did not qualify for the second run.

Raphael Haaser won the gold medal in the Giant Slalom at the Alpine World Championships held in Saalbach-Hinterglemm.

This was Austria's ninth gold medal in the Men's Giant Slalom event at the World Championships. Marcel Hirscher won the last gold medal for Austria at the Alpine World Ski Championships in St. Moritz in 2017.

Haaser had never won or stood on the podium in a Giant Slalom event in the Alpine Ski World Cup. He recorded the fastest second run in Soelden, finishing in sixth place, his career-best result in the Giant Slalom discipline.

The 28-year-old Austrian skier has already finished on the podium five times, but all in the Super-G.

He finished in 25th place in the last Giant Slalom in Copper Mountain.

Loic Meillard finished in third place in the Giant Slalom standings. The 28-year-old skier from Valais finished in second place in the Giant Slalom standings the previous season.

In March 2025, the 28-year-old Swiss skier displayed exceptional form, winning the season's last two Giant Slalom events in Hafjell and Sun Valley.

In Hafjell, Loic Meillard, Marco Odermatt, and Thomas Tumler celebrate a 1-2-3 victory. In the 2024-2025 winter season, Switzerland excelled in the Giant Slalom, winning six out of nine races: Marco Odermatt secured 3 wins, Loic Meillard 2 wins, and Thomas Tumler 1 win. They achieved a total of 12 podiums and 20 top-10 finishes. The three remaining wins were achieved by Norwegian skiers Alexander Steen Olsen with two wins and Henrik Kristoffersen with one win.

Last season, the weekend at Birds of Prey ended with a big surprise. Thomas Tumler secures his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory by winning the Giant Slalom at Beaver Creek. At the age of 35, after a total of 124 World Cup races, Tumler can finally call himself a World Cup winner. Tumler is the second-oldest Giant slalom winner in World Cup history after his Swiss compatriot Didier Cuche.

He achieved the last of his four podium finishes in the Giant Slalom in Hafjell and his first podium finish in Beaver Creek in 2018.

The Swiss duo of Thomas Tumler and Loic Meillard secured silver and bronze in the Giant Slalom at the Alpine World Championships held in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, finishing behind the winner Raphael Haaser.

Thomas Tumler finished in fourth position in the Giant Slalom standings.

The 2024-2025 Soelden race was a significant milestone as it marked the first time Lucas Pinheiro Braathen represented Brazil. He finished in fourth place, earning Brazil's first-ever World Cup points. He did not finish the first run in the season opener in 2025.

Last season, Pinheiro Braathen also achieved second-place finishes twice in Giant Slalom. He finished in second place in Beaver Creek in December 2024 and in Kranjska Gora in March 2025.

In 2020, 22-year-old Norwegian sensation Pinheiro Braathen stole the show in the opening race of the 2020-2021 Audi FIS World Cup in Sölden when he edged out Swiss Marco Odermatt (SUI) by 0.06 seconds to claim his first victory and podium at the World Cup. At just 20 years old, he was also the youngest-ever winner at Soelden.

Pinheiro Braathen won the Slalom season opener in Levi, securing Brazil's first-ever Alpine Ski World Cup victory.

Alexis Pinturault is set to return to the Alpine Ski World Cup in Sölden. With 34 victories, he holds the record as the most successful French skier in World Cup history. Pinturault is just three wins away from surpassing Benjamin Raich and Aksel Lund Svindal, both of whom have 36 wins. Achieving this milestone would place him eighth on the all-time list for overall World Cup victories. This ranking is topped by Ingemar Stenmark, who has achieved 86 victories in the Alpine Ski World Cup.

Pinturault has the most career Top-10 Giant Slalom World Cup finishes among active athletes at 82. The French skier was only 18th in Soelden, so Henrik Kristoffersen, who finished in 7th place, took the opportunity to close the gap; he now has 80. Ingemar Stenmark leads the record list with 101 Top-10 finishes in Giant Slalom in the Alpine Ski World Cup.