Who to watch? Gurgl Women's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom

Mikaela Shiffrin. Gurgl 2024 Slalom Winner. Picture: Ski Paradise

After Levi, the next Women's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom will take place on Sunday, 23, on the Kirchenkar slope in Gurgl, Tirol, Austria.

Mikaela Shiffrin delivered another dominant Slalom victory at the Women’s premiere in Gurgl last season. The US skier was accompanied on the podium by two new faces, Lara Colturi and Camille Rast, second and third, respectively. The top five skiers in last year’s Gurgl Slalom were separated by just 0.80 seconds.

In Levi, Mikaela Shiffrin confirmed her status as the unrivaled favorite with a dominant victory. With two flawless runs, she recorded the fastest time in both and secured a commanding victory, finishing 1.66 seconds ahead of Lara Colturi and 2.59 seconds ahead of Emma Aicher. This win marked the 30-year-old American skier's 102nd victory in the World Cup, the 65th in Slalom.

Without Petra Vlhova, it's difficult to imagine anyone challenging the American ace. Until Vlhová's injury in Jasná last season, Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhová had recorded a 1–2 finish in 24 Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom events. Shiffrin finished ahead of Vlhová 14 times, and Vlhová finished ahead of Shiffrin 10 times.

Since the start of the 2022-2023 season, Mikaela Shiffrin (17), Petra Vlhová (5), Wendy Holdener (2), Anna Swenn Larsson (2), Lena Dürr (1), Camille Rast (2), Zrinka Ljutic (3), and Katharina Truppe (1) were the eight women to claim a World Cup Slalom victory. On November 30, 2024, at the World Cup Giant Slalom in Killington, Shiffrin slipped on the steep slope and crashed violently into a gate. Then she missed the races in Killington, Semmering, Kranjska Gora, and Flachau. On January 30, 2025, in her comeback race after her injuries had healed, she finished tenth in the Slalom event at Courchevel.

Mikaela Shiffrin began the season aiming to set a new record by winning her ninth Women's Slalom Globe. She broke the previous record of six, set by Vreni Schneider, during the 2022–2023 season.

To date, Shiffrin has won a record 65 Slalom World Cup races. If she wins five more this season, she will have twice as many Slalom World Cup wins as her closest competitor, Marlies Schild, who has 35 Slalom World Cup wins.

With 102 victories in the Alpine Ski World Cup, she is the most successful skier in history. She is 16 wins ahead of Ingemar Stenmark and 20 ahead of fellow American Lindsey Vonn on the all-time list.

Mikaela Shiffrin holds the record for the most World Cup race wins in a single season. During the 2018-2019 season, she achieved an impressive 17 victories, including 8 in Slalom. No skier, regardless of gender, has ever won more than 14 World Cup races in a single season. Shiffrin also won 14 World Cup races in the 2022-2023 season, matching the achievements of Vreni Schneider, who won 14 races during the 1988-1989 season.

Mikaela Shiffrin finished last season fourth in the Slalom World Cup standings, the first time in nine seasons she had finished outside the top two.

Last season, Zrinka Ljutic claimed her first career Slalom Alpine Ski World Cup Crystal Globe with a total of 541 points. Katharina Liensberger (509), along with Camille Rast (492), took second and third place in the discipline's rankings. She made her the youngest women’s small Globe winner since Mikaela Shiffrin won the Slalom Globe in 2015 at the age of 20.

Ljutic's best previous placement in the Slalom standings was 8th, achieved in the 2023-2024 winter season when she was awarded the Longines Rising Star Trophy.

Zrinka Ljutic is the second Croatian woman to claim the Slalom Crystal Globe, joining Janica Kostelic, who achieved this in the 2000-2001 and 2005-2006 seasons.

At only 21 years old, Ljutic secured her first World Cup Slalom victory on December 29 in Semmering. She then claimed two additional wins in Kranjska Gora and Courchevel, along with a second-place finish in Sestriere.

The Croatian finished in ninth place in Gurgl in 2024.

Katharina Liensberger has won three World Cup slalom races and finished on the podium 17 times.

The four Austrian women to have claimed more than three World Cup Slalom victories are Marlies Schild (35), Roswitha Steiner (8), Gertrud Gabl (5), and Nicole Hosp (5).

Katharina Liensberger won the Slalom Crystal Globe in 2021. Last season's second-place finish was her best result since then.

She is seeking her first World Cup win since triumphing in Are in March 2022, which is one of her three World Cup Slalom victories to date.

At the Beijing Olympic Winter Games, Liensberger took silver in the Slalom behind gold medallist Petra Vlhova.

In Cortina 2020, Liensberger posted the fastest times in both slalom runs, finishing well ahead of Petra Vhlova and Mikaela Shiffrin to take the gold medal. She was the first Austrian woman to reach the world championship podium in the Slalom since Michaela Kirchgasser (silver) in 2013. The last Austrian to win the Women's Slalom world title was Marlies Schild in 2011.

Liensberger was the best Austrian skier in last year’s Gurgl Slalom, finishing in seventh.

Camille Rast brought her top form to the 2025 World Ski Championships in Saalbach and claimed gold ahead of teammate Wendy Holdener. Katharina Liensberger rounded up the podium in third place. She became the first Swiss woman to win the Women's Slalom since Vreni Schneider's victory in 1991 at the Ski World Championships in Saalbach. Schneider was the last Swiss skier to win the Slalom Crystal Globe in 1995.

The 26-year-old skier from Valais outclassed the competition to achieve the greatest success of her career: her first World Championship medal. It's Switzerland's seventh Women’s Slalom World Championship gold medal.

Rast achieved her first Slalom World Cup victory last season in Killington, followed by another win in Flachau. She ultimately finished third in the Slalom standings, marking her best season finish ever.

Lena Dürr starts the new season seeking just her second World Cup victory in Slalom. She has been on the podium in 16 Slalom races between the 2021-2022 and 2024-2025 winter seasons, but her only victory came in Špindleruv Mlýn on 29 January 2023.

Last season, she finished on the podium four times in Slalom: Levi, Semmering, Courchevel, and Sun Valley.

She finished fourth in Levi last week, just 0.15 seconds off the podium.

Wendy Holdener starts the new season seeking just her third Slalom World Cup win. She has been on the World Cup podium 52 times so far, with only five wins: two in Slalom (both in the 2022/23 season), two in Alpine Combined, and one in a City Event. In addition, she has won five Olympic medals and nine World Championship medals.

No other skier finished runner-up as many times in World Cup slalom events as Holdener (19).

Holdener finished third in the Slalom standings in 2016, 2017, and 2019; and second in 2018 and 2023.

Last year's Gurgl Slalom saw three Swiss skiers finish in the top 10: Camille Rast came third, Wendy Holdener came fourth, and Melanie Meillard came 10th.

Sara Hector finished in the Top 10 of the Slalom standings last season for the third season in a row. She is a Giant Slalom specialist and the current Olympic Giant Slalom Champion, but she has been on a Slalom World Cup podium three times during the last two seasons. Hector's third position in the Night Slalom in Flachau in 2024 marks her first podium in this discipline in the Alpine Ski World Cup.

Anna Swenn Larsson stood on the podium twice last season. The Swedish athlete has 14 slalom World Cup podium finishes in total. She won two slalom events: in Killington in 2022 and in Soldeu in 2024.

Swenn-Larsson was the silver medallist behind Mikaela Shiffrin in the Slalom at the 2019 World Championships in Åre.

She finished in second place in Levi in 2022, her only podium finish in the Finish resort. Last season she finished in fourth place.

Lara Colturi is seeking her first career win in the Alpine Ski World Cup. A victory would not only be her first but would also mark a historic moment as the first-ever win for Albania. In Levi, Colturi secured her fourth World Cup podium finish, her second in Slalom. Last season, she achieved her first podium finish at the Gurgl Slalom, just days after turning 18. She made her World Cup debut in the Levi Slalom three years ago, merely four days after her 16th birthday.

22-year-old German supertalent Emma Aicher finished in third place in the season opener in Levi. This is also the fourth World Cup podium finish for 22-year-old Emma Aicher, and her first in Slalom. Her previous three podium finishes were in Downhill skiing, including one victory, and in Super-G, including another victory in La Thuile, all of which were achieved last season.