2025 Women's Overall World Cup
| |
Previous: 2024 | Next: 2026 |
The women's overall competition in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is currently scheduled to consist of 35 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH) (8 races), super-G (SG) (8 races), giant slalom (GS) (9 races), and slalom (SL) (10 races). [1] As of 18 January 2025, two races (a super-G and a giant slalom) have been cancelled during the season.
After total cancellations in each of the prior two seasons, the two downhills scheduled on the Matterhorn in mid-November were removed from the schedule. [2] Also, for the third straight season, only the four major disciplines will be contested on the World Cup circuit.
As is the case every odd year, the Alpine Skiing World Championships will take place, this time in Saalbach, Austria during 4–16 February 2025. [3]
The first race of the season, a giant slalom scheduled as usual on the Rettenbach glacier in Sölden, Austria in October, was won by 2020 overall champion Federica Brignone of Italy, who rallied from third place after the opening run with the seventh-fastest time in the second run to overtake both of the racers ahead of her. [4] With the victory, Brignone, who is 34, became the oldest woman ever to win a World Cup race. [4] Because this race was held so early in the fall, neither 2016 and 2024 overall champion Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland nor 2021 overall champion Petra Vlhová of Slovakia had recovered from prior surgeries sufficiently to be able to compete, although Gut-Behrami entered the race but did not start. Three weeks later, picking up where she left off, five-time (2017–19, 2022–23) overall champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States won the slalom in Levi, Finland, giving her the season lead and an all-time record 98 total victories in World Cup skiing. [5] After the race, Shiffrin stated that "from this weekend, I am racing every single weekend until world championships, for sure. So it’s going be a really big push now." [5] Shiffrin then won her 99th career victory in another slalom the following week in Gurgl, Austria. [6]
In the very next race, at Shiffrin's "home" course in Killington, Vermont, US, Shiffrin made her first try for her 100th World Cup victory. As in the prior giant slalom in Sölden, she held the lead going into the second run. However, while still in the lead shortly after the midpoint of the course, she suffered a hard crash into the fencing, which resulted in her being stretchered off the course; the crash handed the win to Sara Hector of Sweden. [7] Shiffrin's injury was eventually diagnosed as an abdominal puncture wound (which could not be stitched up due to the possibility of infection) combined with "severe muscle trauma", and she was anticipated to miss at least the next two weeks. [8]
In the first race without Shiffrin, Camille Rast of Switzerland, who had posted her first two World Cup podiums ever by placing third in the prior two races, rallied from third after the second leg to post her first World Cup victory and take the lead in the overall standing for the season. [9] In an injury update, Shiffrin posted on 9 December (over a week after the accident) that she was finally able to walk outside her house, making it appear that her return to competition might not take place in December. [10] Shortly thereafter, Shiffrin had to undergo abdominal surgery to clean out the wound, keeping her completely away from the rest of the North American swing of the World Cup (even as a spectator) and delaying her return to competition still further. [11]
However, Shiffrin was not the only female American multiple-time champion making news. Around the same time, 40-year-old four-time World Cup overall champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States, Shiffrin's former teammate (and the third-winningest skier in World Cup history, with 82 total race victories) who retired during the 2019 season due to injuries and has since had a complete knee replacement, announced the end of her retirement and then qualified for a possible return to the World Cup circuit. [12] And Vonn served as a forerunner for the first-ever women's competitive run on the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek, Colorado (USA), the first speed race of the women's season, which was won by defending downhill discipline champion Cornelia Hütter of Austria. [13] After the race, Vonn said she would return to competition the next week in St. Moritz. [13] And the last race of the North America swing, which was also the first super-G of the season, was won by another athlete making an injury comeback: Sofia Goggia of Italy; the win, coupled with a second the day before, moved Goggia into sixth position for the season. [14]
Vonn did indeed return when the races moved back to Europe, and she placed 14th in her first race back. The first super-G at St. Moritz was won by Hütter, followed by Gut-Behrami and Goggia, moving Hütter into overall second and both Goggia and Gut-Behrami into the overall top five. [15] The second super-G was canceled due to strong winds and poor visibility. [16] After the Christmas break, the next giant slalom, held after Christmas in Semmering (AUT), came down to a second-run battle between Brignone and Gut-Behrami, which was decided when Gut-Behrami hooked a gate with her arm, handing the victory and the overall season lead to Brignone. [17]
The next three races were all technical events: two slaloms and a giant slalom. The two slaloms, which bracketed New Year's Day, were both won by 20-year-old rising star Zrinka Ljutić of Croatia, propelling her into the overall season lead (as well as the lead in the slalom discipline). [18] [19] In between, Hector was able to win the giant slalom and reclaim the season lead in that discipline. [20] The following two speed races in St. Anton, Austria featured Brignone returning to the overall lead with a victory in the downhill (her first-ever in the discipline, breaking Vonn's record as the oldest downhill winner) [21] and a third in the super-G, which was won by Vonn's American teammate Lauren Macuga. [22] Vonn's finishes (6th in the downhill, 4th in the super-G) also continued to attract media attention for the U.S. team, [23] while another story was the success of the "new wave" of skiers, including Croatia's Ljutić (20), the U.S.'s Macuga (22), Albania's Lara Colturi (18), and Swiss newcomer Malorie Blanc (18), who finished second in the St. Anton downhill in her second-ever World Cup race. [24] Another slalom two days later in Flachau (Austria) caused the overall lead to change hands again, when Camille Rast charged from eighth after the first run to post her second World Cup victory and seize the overall lead for the season, with Hector also moving ahead of Brignone. [25] But Brignone immediately regained the overall lead by finished third in the next race, a downhill at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, with her countrywoman Goggia triumphing. [26]
The finals in all disciplines will be held from 22 to 27 March 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho, US. [27] Only the top 25 skiers in each World Cup discipline and the winner of the Junior World Championship in the discipline, plus any skiers who have scored at least 500 points in the World Cup overall classification for the season, are eligible to compete in the final, and only the top 15 finishers earn World Cup points.
Federica Brignone is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer. She competes in all alpine disciplines, with a focus on giant slalom and super-G. Brignone won the World Cup overall title in 2020, becoming the first Italian female to achieve this feat. She is also an Olympic and World Championship medalist. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, she won a silver medal in the giant slalom and a bronze in the combined. She was nicknamed "La Tigre Delle Nevi" by Italian sport journalists.
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.
Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin is an American World Cup alpine skier who has the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history. She is considered one of the greatest alpine skiers of all time. She is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, a five-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom, and an eight-time winner of the World Cup discipline title in that event. Shiffrin, at 18 years and 345 days, is the youngest slalom gold medalist in Olympic history.
Sofia Goggia is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer who competes in all disciplines and specialises in the speed events of downhill and super-G. She is a two-time Olympic downhill medalist — gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics, the first one for an Italian woman — and four-time World Cup downhill title winner.
Petra Vlhová is a Slovak World Cup alpine ski racer who specialises in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. Vlhová won the World Cup overall title in 2021 and the gold medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics in the slalom event, becoming the first Slovak skier to achieve these feats.
The women's overall in the 2020 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 30 events in 6 disciplines: downhill (DH), Super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), slalom (SL), Alpine combined (AC), and parallel (PAR). This was the first year that parallel was treated as a separate discipline; prior to the 2019–20 season, it had been a sub-element of the slalom discipline. The season had originally been scheduled to have 41 races, but 11 races that had originally been scheduled were canceled during the season, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as discussed below.
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 overall in the 2022 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 37 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 of its events in the 2021–22 season cancelled due to the continuing schedule disruption cased by the COVID-19 pandemic, which also happened in 2020-21. In an adjustment that was partially motivated by the pandemic, each of the four main disciplines had nine races, while the parallel discipline had only one. The season did not have any cancellations.
The women's super-G in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup included eight events, including the final. The original schedule called for nine events, but a scheduled downhill at St. Anton on 14 January was converted to a super-G due to the inability to hold pre-race practice runs on either of the two days prior to the event. A later super-G at Cortina was converted into a downhill to restore the original schedule balance, but then a downhill at Crans Montana on 25 February had to be delayed a day due to fog and dangerous course conditions, and the super-G previously scheduled for that day was cancelled and not rescheduled.
The women's giant slalom in the 2023 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup included ten events, including the final. The season was scheduled to open in Sölden, Austria on 22 October 2022, but the race was cancelled due to bad weather and rescheduled to Semmering, Austria on 27 December.
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 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 overall competition in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 39 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, four more speed races scheduled for February were also cancelled, reducing the total number of season events to 39.
The women's giant slalom in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup included eleven events, including the final. The season opened in Sölden, Austria on 28 October 2023. After an injury to defending champion Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, the season championship became a battle between Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland and Federica Brignone of Italy, which went down to the last race of the season at the finals in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria before Gut-Behrami triumphed.
The women's downhill in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of eight 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 season champion was Cornelia Hütter of Austria, ending a string of three straight season triumphs by Sofia Goggia of Italy, who was injured just after the midpoint of the season but still finished third.
The women's super-G in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of nine events, including the final. One super-G on 10 December in St. Moritz was canceled, but it was rescheduled as a second super-G in Zauchensee on 12 January. As discussed in the season summary below, three more cancellations took place during February, reducing the season to eight races, but one downhill was then converted to a super-G to produce the final total of nine.
The women's giant slalom in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to include ten events, including the final. The season opened in Sölden, Austria on 26 October 2024.
The women's slalom in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to consist of ten events, including the final. The slalom season began with the traditional "reindeer" opening race in Levi, Finland on 16 November 2024.
The women's downhill in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to consist of eight events, including the final. After the elimination of the two downhills scheduled in November on the "Gran Becca" course on the Matterhorn from the 2025 schedule, the first race of the season in this discipline is now scheduled to take place on 14 December in Beaver Creek, Colorado, United States.
The women's super-G in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to consist of nine events, including the final. The discipline opened for the season on 15 December in Beaver Creek, Colorado, United States.