Alexis Pinturault is a French World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist.
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 men's slalom in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 11 events including the final, exactly as scheduled without any cancellations.
The men's giant slalom in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved ten events, as scheduled.
The men's overall in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 35 events in 5 disciplines: downhill, Super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and parallel. The sixth discipline, Alpine combined, had all three of its events in the 2020–21 season cancelled. The tentative season schedule contained 43 events, but the final schedule cut the season back to 38 events. The continuing danger of the COVID-19 pandemic caused the three Alpine combineds to be canceled in order to keep the speed skiers and the technical skiers separated during the season; additionally, two of the three parallels and the second team parallel (Lech/Zürs) were canceled so that other events could take their place and reduce travel. Ultimately, only three of those final 38 races were canceled -- two downhills and a Super-G -- and two of those were canceled by snowstorms during World Cup finals week, as discussed below.
The men's parallel competition in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved only 1 event, a parallel giant slalom, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three additional parallel events, scheduled for Alta Badia, Davos, and Chamonix, were cancelled prior to the start of the season.
The men's giant slalom in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved seven events, as the last two scheduled giant slaloms in the season were cancelled.
The men's slalom in the 2020 FIS Alpine Ski World Cup involved only nine events, as the final three scheduled slaloms of the season were cancelled.
The Men's combined in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 3 events, all of which were completed before the season was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A major change was made in the discipline this season due to the recent dominance of slalom specialists in the combined over speed racers. As was previously the case, the first run continued to be the speed discipline. The second run then started in reverse order of finish in the speed run, which allowed the slalom specialists to tackle fresh snow as the first down the hill in the slalom run, while the speed specialists had to face the more challenging rutted snow at the end of the day, as the last skiers of the 30 who qualified for the second run. Instead, the second run was changed to start in the same order as the finish of the speed run, so that the leader after the speed run became the first to race on the fresh slalom course.
The men's overall in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 36 events in 6 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL), Alpine combined (AC), and parallel (PAR). The season was originally scheduled to have 44 men's races plus a mixed team event, but a race in Japan plus final the seven men's races and the mixed team event were all cancelled, as discussed below.
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 men's slalom in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 12 events, including two parallel slaloms (both city events}. Marcel Hirscher of Austria won his sixth championship in the discipline, all in the prior seven years, on the way to his eighth straight overall men's championship. During the season, Hirscher had hinted at retiring after it, and before the start of the next season, he did announce his retirement.
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 men's giant slalom in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved nine events, including a parallel giant slalom. After this season, all parallel races were moved into a separate discipline. Marcel Hirscher of Austria won three of the first four races this season and easily won the discipline for the fifth straight season, his sixth total win in this discipline, on his way to his eighth straight overall World Cup championship.
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 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 Men's combined in the 2017 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved two events. Defending discipline champion Alexis Pinturault of France upset overall slalom discipline leader Marcel Hirscher in the slalom leg to win the first combined of the season at Santa Caterina, Italy. When Hirscher opted to skip the second combined, Pinturault was heavily favored in the race at Wengen, Switzerland as well, but heavy falling snow during the downhill leg provided a huge edge to the early starters and led to a shock podium topped by Niels Hintermann of Switzerland, who had never before finished in the top 20 in a World Cup race—and Pinturault only placed 20th after sitting fourth following the slalom leg. Nevertheless, combining that showing with his prior victory was sufficient to give Pinturault the discipline crown for the 2016–17 season.
The men's giant slalom competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eleven events, including the first-ever parallel giant slalom and the season finals in St. Moritz, Switzerland. The newly introduced Parallel giant slalom event at Alta Badia, Italy was a relatively short Giant slalom course that pitted the men against one another in a modified bracket-reduction format from a field of thirty-two qualifying skiers, eventually whittled down to just four final-round racers in a "large final" and a "small final".
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.
