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 2018–19 season marks the 53rd consecutive year for the FIS World Cup.
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 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 2020–21 season marked the 55th consecutive year for the FIS World Cup. As it had every year since 2006, the season began in Sölden, Austria in October, and it ended with the World Cup finals in March, which were held in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many changes to the original racing schedule. Among them were the following:
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 overall in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 31 events in 5 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL), and parallel (PAR). The sixth discipline, Alpine combined (AC), had all three of its events in the 2020–21 season cancelled, The tentative women's season schedule included 37 events, but the final women's schedule cut the number of events to 34 due to the continuing disruption cased by the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the changes were the elimination of the three Alpine combined races to eliminate the mixing of speed skiers and technical skiers in those events, as well as the elimination of two of the three parallels in favor of other races. Ultimately, only three of the races in this schedule -- one downhill, one Super-G, and one giant slalom -- were canceled during the season, as discussed later.
The men's downhill in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of seven events. The original schedule had contained nine downhills, but a rescheduled one on 5 March in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria, was canceled due to fog and continual snowfall after just nine skiers had finished, and the downhill during World Cup finals week was also 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 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 women's downhill in the 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of nine events including the finals. Defending champion Sofia Goggia of Italy, who won four of the five downhills in which she competed in 2020-21, continued her domination in 2021-22 by again winning four of the first five downhills. Goggia took a commanding lead in the discipline after American Breezy Johnson, who finished second in each of the first three downhills, missed the rest of the season with a knee injury. Goggia then suffered her own knee injury, including a broken bone and ligament tears, while training for the last downhill prior to the 2022 Winter Olympics, but she was able to continue competing within a month and, after all but the final race of the season, had such a commanding lead that only one other competitor even had a theoretical possibility of overtaking her. At the finals, Suter failed to score, and Goggia won her second consecutive discipline championship.
The women's super-G in the 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of nine events including the final. Although no Italian woman had ever won the super-G championship, the battle in 2021-22 was between three of them: speed specialists Sofia Goggia and Elena Curtoni plus 2020 overall champion Federica Brignone. Through the first six races, Curtoni had won one, and each of the others had won two. However, Goggia was injured in a crash in the sixth race, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, and missed the next set of speed races as well as the super-G in the 2022 Winter Olympics. The seventh race, which was held days before the Winter Olympics, was skipped by many of the other top competitors, but was won by Brignone, enabling her to open a sizable lead in the discipline, and Brignone was able to clinch the season championship in the next Super-G when neither Curtoni nor Goggia scored points.
The women's downhill in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of nine events, including the final. The original schedule called for eleven events, but the first two races of the season scheduled for 5 and 6 November 2022 in Zermatt/Cervinia, were canceled due to adverse weather conditions; the FIS decided not to reschedule them. Once the season began, a downhill scheduled in St. Anton on 14 January had to be converted into a Super-G due to the inability to hold a pre-race training run on either of the two days prior to the downhill. However, a subsequent Super-G scheduled at Cortina d'Ampezzo was converted into a downhill, restoring the original schedule.
The women's downhill in the 2019 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the season finals in Soldeu, Andorra. Defending discipline champion Sofia Goggia of Italy fractured her ankle prior to the start of the season and missed five of the eight events, ending her chances to repeat. In addition, 2018 runner-up Lindsey Vonn of the USA, who had closed the prior season by winning all of the final four downhills and needed only four more victories to equal Ingemar Stenmark's all-time World Cup victory record, began the season injured and announced her planned retirement at the end of the season, but was hampered during her comeback by her cumulative injuries, and finally retired immediately after the conclusion of the 2019 World Ski Championships.
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 downhill in the 2017 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the season finale in Aspen, Colorado (USA). Defending champion Lindsey Vonn of the USA was injured during the first half of the season, leaving the championship race wide open. However, Slovenian skier Ilka Štuhec won the first three downhills of the season and ended up carrying a 97-point lead into the finals, meaning that all she needed was either to finish in the top 15 herself or for rising Italian skier Sofia Goggia, who was in second, not to win. As it turned out, Štuhec won the final herself, clinching the discipline title.
The men's downhill in the 2017 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved eight events, including the season finale in Aspen, Colorado (USA). Due to difficult weather conditions, only two downhills were held during the first twenty events of the 2016-17 World Cup season, meaning that six were held during the final sixteen events. Defending discipline champion Peter Fill of Italy, who did not win a downhill all season, went into the finals trailing Norway's Kjetil Jansrud by 33 points, but he finished second in the finals while Jansrud finished 11th, thus permitting Fill to repeat as downhill season champion by 23 points despite not recording a win.
The women's downhill competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved nine events, including the season finale in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The women's overall competition in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to consist of 41 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH), super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), and slalom (SL). The schedule initially was planned to consist of 45 events, but two downhills on the Matterhorn in mid-November 2023 were cancelled due to high winds and not rescheduled. As noted below in the season summary, two other speed races scheduled for February were also cancelled, reducing the total to 41.
The women's downhill in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is currently scheduled to consist of nine events, including the final. The tentative schedule called for eleven events, but a new event, the team combined, which was scheduled for 16 February 2024 in Crans Montana, was cancelled and converted into an additional downhill on the final schedule, increasing the planned schedule to twelve. However, as discussed below in the season summary, cancellations reduced that number during the season.
The women's super-G in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to include ten events, including the final. Currently, as discussed below, one super-G on 10 December in St. Moritz had been canceled, but it was rescheduled as a second super-G in Zauchensee on 12 January. As discussed in the season summary below, another cancellations took place at the start of February, reducing the season to ten races.
