Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian former World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second on the male all-time list.
Alexis Pinturault is a French World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist.
The 46th World Cup season began on 22 October 2011, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 18 March 2012, at the World Cup finals in Schladming, Austria.
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 48th World Cup season began on 26 October 2013, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 16 March 2014 at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The defending overall champions from the 2013 season were Marcel Hirscher of Austria and Tina Maze of Slovenia. The overall titles were won by Hirscher and Anna Fenninger, also of Austria. The season was interrupted by the 2014 Winter Olympics that took place from 7 to 23 February in Sochi, Russia, with the alpine events at Rosa Khutor.
The men's combined competition of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics was held on 13 February 2018 at the Jeongseon Alpine Centre and the Yongpyong Alpine Centre at the Alpensia Sports Park in PyeongChang.
The men's super-G in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of six events, although seven had been originally 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 super-G in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved six events, as the last two scheduled Super-Gs were canceled.
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 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 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of seven events including the final. A race originally scheduled for Lake Louise in November and then rescheduled to Bormio in December was cancelled twice and was thought unlikely to be rescheduled, potentially reducing the season to six events. However, the race was rescheduled to Wengen on 13 January 2022. After this race, 2016 champion Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway had won three of the five completed races and led the discipline; two other races were within 100 points of his lead, although no one was closer than 60 points behind. Kilde then clinched the discipline championship for the season in front of a home crowd by winning the next-to-last race of the season in Kvitfjell.
The men's overall in the 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 37 events in 5 disciplines: downhill, Super-G, giant slalom, slalom, and parallel. The sixth discipline, Alpine combined, had all of its events in the 2021–22 season cancelled due to the schedule disruption cased by the COVID-19 pandemic, which also happened in 2020–21. The schedules were also revamped as a consequence of the pandemic, thus ensuring that the combined number of speed races was the same as the combined number of technical races, with just one parallel race. The season did not have any cancellations.
The men's overall in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 38 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH), super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), and slalom (SL). The fifth and sixth disciplines in FIS ski events, parallel (PAR). and Alpine combined (AC), had all events in the 2022–23 season cancelled, either due to the schedule disruption cased by the COVID-19 pandemic (AC) or due to bad weather (PAR). The original calendar contained 43 events, but in addition to the parallel, four downhills were cancelled over the course of the season.
The women's overall competition in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 38 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH), super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), and slalom (SL). The fifth and sixth disciplines, parallel (PAR). and Alpine combined (AC), had all events in the 2022–23 season cancelled, either due to the schedule disruption cased by the COVID-19 pandemic (AC) or due to bad weather (PAR). The original schedule called for 42 races, but in addition to the parallel, two downhills and a super-G were cancelled during the season.
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 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 overall competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 44 events in 5 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL), and Alpine combined (AC). The newly introduced Parallel giant slalom event at Alta Badia, Italy—which was included in the giant slalom season standings—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".
