After the speed races in Val d'Isère, Courchevel (France) will host a Night Slalom on December 21, 2023 in the Émile-Allais Stadium, located in Courchevel 1850 on the Loze sector.
The program in Courchevel will be the following:
Slalom, Thursday, December 21. 1st run 17:45; 2nd run 20:45 (CET)
Start altitude: 2,015 m
Finish altitude: 1,805 m
Elevation difference: 210 m
Length: 503 m
Maximum gradient: 44%
Average gradient: 37%
Built from scratch in 1946, Courchevel is a French Alps ski resort with four different areas: Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Courchevel 1850. The Courchevel valley also includes the town of La Tania, built as competitors accommodation for the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.
Courchevel is part of the Les 3 Vallées, the world’s largest ski area with 7 interconnected resorts (Courchevel, Méribel, Brides-les-Bains, Les Menuires, Saint-Martin-de-Belleville, Val Thorens and Orelle) and 600 kilometers of ski runs.
The area originally consisted of three valleys: Saint-Bon, Allues, and Belleville in the Tarentaise, Savoie. The skiing area has since been extended into a 'fourth' valley, the Maurienne valley.
Within the Tarentaise Valley, you find the biggest concentration of world-class ski resorts in the world. The most well-known of them are the Paradiski (Les Arcs, La Plagne) and the Espace Killy (Val d'Isère and Tignes).
Courchevel and the Région Auvergne Rhône-Alpes have a long tradition of competitive skiing and hosting major international events. It is from this region that 70% of the athletes who are members of the French Alpine Skiing Team and the main competition clubs or champions trainers come from.
In January 1979, Courchevel hosted for the first time an event of the World Cup, a Giant Slalom won by Ingemar Stenmark.
The 2023 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships were held in Courchevel-Méribel. For the occasion a new, very technical, and challenging Downhill course, L'Éclipse was designed by Bruno Tuaire, director of Courchevel Sports Club, and Hannes Trinkl (FIS).
In 2018 Mikaela Shiffrin won the last Slalom held in the Émile-Allais Stadium. Petra Vlhova finished in second place 0.29 seconds behind Shiffrin. Olympic champion Frida Hansdotter of Sweden rounded out the podium in third place (+0.37).
In 2022 Andreja Slokar won the last Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom in Courchevel-Méribel, on March 19, 2022 but it was held on the Roc de Fer racecourse in Méribel. It marked her first and, so far, only podium finish in a World Cup Slalom event.
Mikaela Shiffrin won the last two Slalom events of this World Cup season in Levi and Killington. She can win at least three successive World Cup Slaloms for the first time since she achieved a run of six between February and December 2019.
Shiffrin recorded 55 of her 91 wins in the Slalom, a record for most wins in a single event. Ingemar Stenmark follows with 46 wins in the Men's Giant Slalom, and Lindsey Vonn with 43 wins in the Women's Downhill.
After her victory in Levi, Shiffrin with 139 podiums overtook Marcel Hirscher (138) in second place all-time for most Alpine Ski World Cup podiums. Ingemar Stenmark with 155 holds the record. Only Ingemar Stenmark (81) has recorded as many podiums in Slalom as Shiffrin (78).
Last season Shiffrin won the Slalom title. In total, Shiffrin finished the 2022-2023 winter season with a total of 15 Crystal Globes (5 total, 7 in Slalom, 2 in Giant Slalom and one in Super-G). In 2023-2024, Shiffrin can equal Ingemar Stenmark (8) for most Slalom Crystal Globes.
Besides Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn (8 in Downhill) and Annemarie Moser-Pröll (7 in Downhill) are the only other women to have won a World Cup title in one discipline at least seven times.
Since 2018-2019, Shiffrin has recorded just one DNF in 45 Slalom World Cup starts: in Kranjska Gora on January 9, 2022.
Petra Vlhová finished third in the Slalom standings. She recorded podium finishes in the Slalom standings in each of the past five seasons, claiming two Crystal Globes: 2nd-1st-3rd-1st-3rd.
Vlhová won the first Slalom of the season held in Levi, and second in Killington. It's her 43th podium in Slalom. The 28-year-old skier joined in Levi the group of five other women with at least 20 Slalom World Cup wins: Mikaela Shiffrin (53), Marlies Schild (35), Vreni Schneider (34), Erika Hess (21), and Janica Kostelic (20).
Petra Vlhová is the reigning Olympic Champion in Slalom.
Vlhová has finished runner-up in 14 World Cup slalom events. She came second to Shiffrin on each of the last 13 occasions (Vlhová finished second behind compatriot Veronika Velez-Zuzolová in Zagreb on 3 January 2017).
Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhová have recorded a 1-2 finish in 22 Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom events. Shiffrin beated ahead of Vlhová 13 times and it was the other way around 9 times.
Mikaela Shiffrin and/or Petra Vlhová finished on the podium in each of the last 11 World Cup Slalom events (6 wins for Shiffrin, 3 for Vlhová). The series began after Vlhová finished fourth and Shiffrin fifth in the slalom held in Killington in November 2022.
Lena Dürr finished second and third respectively in the two Slaloms held in Levi. It was her tenth podium in the World Cup, her sixth one in Slalom. The 32-year-old German skier achieved her first Slalom World Cup victory last season in Špindlerův Mlýn on January 29, 2023.
Dürr won the bronze medal in the Slalom at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships in Méribel. The German skier finished fourth in the discipline standings last season. In 2021-2022 she finished in third position, her first time in the Top-3.
Katharina Liensberger returned in Levi to a World Cup Podium. The 26-year-old from Vorarlberg surprised the audience with two consistent runs. The last time she finished in the Top-3 was in March 2022, when she won the Slalom in Åre.
The winner of the 2021 Slalom Crystal Globe and World Champion in Cortina, faced a highly challenging 2022-2023 season, finishing in the Slalom Top-10 just twice.
The skier from Vorarlberg finished in fifth place in Courchevel in 2018.
Leona Popovic finished second on Sunday's Slalom in Levi. It was her second Alpine Ski World Cup podium.
Last season, Zrinka Ljutic (3rd in Špindlerův Mlýn) and Leona Popovic (2nd in Soldeu) recorded the first Slalom podiums for Croatia in the Women's World Cup since Ana Jelusic in 2007.
Janica Kostelic (30), Ivica Kostelic (26) and Filip Zubcic (3) are the only three Croatian skiers to have won a race in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Anna Swenn-Larsson finished fifth in the Slalom standings last season. Her best Slalom standings finish was a fourth place in 2018-2019.
Swenn-Larsson shared the first place with Holdener at the Slalom event held in Killington last season. At the age of 31, the Swede became the oldest debut winner in a World Cup event.
Anna Swenn-Larsson had achieved eight Slalom podiums in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Laurence St-Germain became World Champion in the Slalom at the 47th Alpine World Ski Championships in Meribel on February 18. She left the US favorite Mikaela Shiffrin behind by 0.57 seconds. Bronze went to German Lena Duerr (+0.69). For the second time a Canadian won the world title in Slalom. Anne Heggtveit achieved this feat in 1960 in Squaw Valley.
St-Germain's best result in a World Cup Slalom event is a fifth place in Ã…re on March 11, three weeks after becoming a world champion.