Theodore Sharp Ligety is a retired American alpine ski racer, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, and an entrepreneur, having cofounded Shred Optics. Ligety won the combined event at the 2006 Olympics in Turin and the giant slalom race at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. He is also a five-time World Cup champion in giant slalom. Ligety won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2011 World Championships. He successfully defended his world title in giant slalom in 2013 in Schladming, Austria, where he also won an unexpected gold medal in the super-G and a third gold medal in the super combined.
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.
Carlo Janka is a Swiss former alpine ski racer. Born in Obersaxen, in the canton of Graubünden, he had the winter sports facilities right in front of his home. Janka has won gold medals at both the Winter Olympics and the World Championships, as well as one World Cup overall title, one discipline title and also, one unofficial alpine combined title.
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 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 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 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 International Ski Federation (FIS) Alpine Ski World Cup was the premier circuit for alpine skiing competition. The inaugural season launched in January 1967, and the 2021–22 season marked the 56th consecutive year for the FIS World Cup.
The men's downhill in the 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup included eleven events including the final. A scheduled downhill on 5 December 2021 at Beaver Creek, Colorado was cancelled due to bad weather, but after several abortive attempts to run it at other venues, it was finally added to Kvitfjell on March 4, the day before the previously-scheduled race.
The men's super-G in the 2023 Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of eight events, including the final. The season was originally planned with eight races, but two were cancelled early in the season and were not planned to be rescheduled. However, when two races planned at Garmisch-Partenkirchen on 28-29 January 2023 were cancelled due to a lack of snow, the two previously-cancelled Super-G races were rescheduled on those dates at Cortina d'Ampezzo, restoring the original Super-G schedule plan.
The Men's combined in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved two events. The only skier to podium in both was Alexis Pinturault of France, who edged out overall World Cup leader Marcel Hirscher for the title in the second race and thus won the season championship. At this time, combined races were not included in the season finals, which were scheduled in 2019 in Soldeu, Andorra.
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 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.
