The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France and the USA. It was soon backed by International Ski Federation president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon.
Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Combined is an event in alpine ski racing. The event format has changed within the last 30 years. A traditional combined competition is a two-day event consisting of one run of downhill and two runs of slalom; each discipline takes place on a separate day. The winner is the skier with the fastest aggregate time. Until the 1990s, a complicated point system was used to determine placings in the combined event. Since then, a modified version, called either a "super combined" or an "Alpine combined", has been run as an aggregate time event consisting of two runs: first, a one-run speed event and then only one run of slalom, with both portions held on the same day.
The 47th World Cup season began on 27 October 2012, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 17 March 2013, at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The overall titles were won by Marcel Hirscher of Austria and Tina Maze of Slovenia.
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 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 downhill in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of nine events, with only one cancellation from the scheduled ten.
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 women's giant slalom in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 6 events. The season had been scheduled for nine events, but all of the last three giant slaloms were canceled.
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 parallel competition in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup was contested as a World Cup discipline separate from slalom for the first time in 2020. Prior to the season, FIS decided to combine parallel skiing events into a new discipline, joining the existing disciplines of downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and Alpine combined. The discipline winner would receive a small crystal globe, similar to the other disciplines. However, at the same time, FIS decided to drop the city events to reduce the amount of travel required during the World Cup season, planning to replace them with more parallel events at regular venues.
The men's slalom in the 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of ten events including the final. However, the slalom scheduled in Zagreb on 5 January was first delayed until 6 January due to bad weather and then cancelled in the middle of the first run due to additional bad weather, leading to its removal from the schedule. Eventually, however, it was rescheduled for Flachau on 9 March, restoring the season to 10 events.
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 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 giant slalom in the 2017 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved nine events, including the second-ever parallel giant slalom and the season finals in Aspen, Colorado (USA). Marcel Hirscher of Austria won four of the races this season and finished second in four others, easily winning the discipline for the third straight season on his way to his sixth straight overall World Cup championship. Hirscher was so dominant during the season that much of the focus in the news coverage by the end of the season was about his desire to continue, considering the pressure on him to win.
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.
