Petra Vlhová is a Slovak World Cup alpine ski racer who specialises in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. Vlhová won the World Cup overall title in 2021 and the gold medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics in the slalom event, becoming the first Slovak skier to achieve these feats.
The International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup, the premier circuit for alpine skiing competition, began in January 1967, and the 2019–20 season marked the 54th consecutive year for the FIS World Cup. As it had every year since 2006, the season began in Sölden, Austria in October. The season was supposed to end with the World Cup finals in March, which were to be held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy for the first time since they began in 1993, but the finals were cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy.
The women's super-G in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 6 events, with one cancellation from the scheduled seven. Swiss skier Lara Gut-Behrami won four of the first five Super-Gs to establish an 195-point lead over Swiss teammate and defending discipline champion Corinne Suter with only two races to go, and she clinched the discipline title for 2021 after the sixth event, which turned out to be the last one for the season.
The Women's Combined in the 2020 Alpine Skiing World Cup involved two events, although four had been scheduled. A combined at Val d'Isère, France on 22 December 2019 was cancelled due to heavy snowfall, which forced the downhill scheduled for the day before to be shifted back a day, and a combined at La Thuile, Italy on 1 March was also cancelled due to heavy snowfall the challenge in rescheduling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The women's slalom in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of eleven events, including the final. The original schedule also called for eleven events, but a night slalom at Zagreb on 5 January was cancelled due to high winds and warm weather and not immediately rescheduled. However, a week later, the race was rescheduled as a second slalom at Špindlerův Mlýn on 28 January, accompanied by a shift of the giant slalom scheduled there that day to Kronplatz on 25 January.
The women's super-G in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 6 events, including the finals in Soldeu, Andorra. Originally, the season had been planned to hold 8 events, but the two races scheduled in Sochi, Russia were cancelled due to continuing heavy snowfall.
The women's slalom in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 12 events, including three parallel slaloms. At the end of the season, a new discipline was created for parallel races.
The Women's Combined in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved only 1 event. Only two had been scheduled, but the first was cancelled due to unseasonably warm weather.
The women's overall in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 38 events in 5 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL) [which included parallel slaloms and city events], and Alpine combined (AC).
The women's downhill in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the season finale in Åre, Sweden. Before the start of the season, defending discipline champion Ilka Štuhec of Slovakia suffered a season-ending injury. Ultimately, the discipline title ended up as a battle between oft-injured eight-time discipline champion Lindsey Vonn of the USA and rising Italian skier Sofia Goggia. Through five races, Goggia had a 63-point lead over Vonn, who had been hampered with an injury at the start of the season. Vonn won all of the last three races, earning 300 points. .. but Goggia finished second in all three, earning 240 points, to hang on to a three-point victory for the season title.
The women's super-G in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the season final in Åre, Sweden. Defending discipline champion Tina Weirather from Liechtenstein, daughter of 1978 and 1980 overall World Cup women's champion Hanni Wenzel and 1979 men's World Cup men's downhill discipline champion Harti Weirather, won the first race of the season and then held the lead in the discipline all season, with only two-time discipline champion Lara Gut in close pursuit until the finals.
The women's giant slalom in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight completed events. When the World Cup finals race scheduled in Åre, Sweden was cancelled due to high winds, Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, who had won three races during the season and held a 92-point lead over defending champion Tessa Worley of France in the discipline standings before the finals, was crowned as discipline champion for the season.
The women's slalom in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 12 events, including three parallel races and the season finale in Åre, Sweden.
The men's super-G in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved six events including the final in Åre, Sweden. Norwegian skier Kjetil Jansrud, the defending champion in the discipline, won two of the first five races and finished second in two more, clinching the crystal globe for the season before the final.
The men's giant slalom in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including a parallel giant slalom. Marcel Hirscher of Austria won six of the races this season and easily won the discipline for the fourth straight season, his fifth total win in this discipline, on his way to his seventh straight overall World Cup championship. Hirscher clinched the victory after winning the next-to-last race of the season in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
The Men's combined in the 2018 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved two events. Peter Fill of Italy won the season title when he finished third in the difficult Alpine combined at Wengen, behind first-time World Cup winner Victor Muffat-Jeandet of France, who ended up third in the discipline for the season.
The women's super-G in the 2017 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved seven events, including the season final in Aspen, Colorado (USA). Defending discipline champion Lara Gut from Switzerland got off to a great start by winning the first three races, but she suffered a season-ending injury in early February, which led to a tight battle between the two top contenders remaining: Slovenia's Ilka Štuhec and Liechtenstein's Tina Weirather. With just the season finals in Aspen remaining, Štuhec, who had won two races in the discipline and won the season title in the downhill the day before the race, held a 15-point lead over Weirather, but Weirather nipped Štuhec by 0.35 seconds in the finals, giving her the season title by 5 points.
The Women's Combined in the 2017 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved three events, first a super-combined, and then two Alpine combined. Downhill champion Ilka Štuhec of Slovenia won the super-combined and held on to win the season championship. Interestingly, in only her second race in the combined discipline ever, overall World Cup champion Mikaela Shiffrin won the final race.
The Women's Combined competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved three events, first a super-combined, and then two Alpine combined. Under the rules in effect at the time, three races in the discipline were required to award a crystal globe to the discipline champion.
The Men's combined competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved three events that combined a one-run speed race with a one-run slalom. Under the rules in effect at the time, three races in the discipline were required to award a crystal globe to the discipline champion. The declining popularity of combined skiing led the three combined races scheduled for 2016 to be run under three different formats. The first race, at Wengen, was run as a traditional super-combined ; the second race, at Kitzbühel, was run as a traditional Alpine combined ; and the third race, at Chamonix, was run as an inverted super-combined.
