The women's overall competition in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of 34 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH) (6 races), super-G (SG) (9 races), giant slalom (GS) (9 races), and slalom (SL) (10 races).[1] The original schedule called for 8 downhills and 10 giant slaloms, but two downhills (including the one at finals) and a giant slalom were cancelled during the season, reducing the women's season from 37 to 34 races.
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.
The season shaped up as a repeat of the 2024 season: after a serious early injury to Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States while leading the overall championship, the season race eventually became a two-person battle between three-event skiers Lara Gut-Behrami of Switzerland, last season's champion, and Federica Brignone of Italy, last season's runner-up. This year, though, the advantage went to Brignone, who wrapped up the overall championship by winning the last race before finals (her 10th win of the season: 2 downhills, 3 super-Gs, and 5 giant slaloms). In so doing, Brignone (at 34) became the oldest woman ever to win a World Cup race in each of those disciplines and (with her second overall title) the oldest women's overall champion in history.
As is the case every odd year, the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2025 was held, this time in Saalbach, Austria during 4–16 February 2025.[3] Gold medals at the worlds were won by Breezy Johnson of the United States in the downhill, Stephanie Venier of Austria in the super-G, Federica Brignone of Italy in the giant slalom, Camille Rast of Switzerland in the slalom. Johnson (DH) and Mikaela Shiffrin (SL) of the United States in the team combined, and Italy (including Giorgia Collomb and Lara Della Mea) in the mixed-team parallel, while the only woman to win three medals was Wendy Holdener of Switzerland with three silvers (slalom, team combined, and mixed-team parallel).
Season summary
The early season
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]
Mid-season
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 22-year-old American teammate Lauren Macuga for her first World Cup triumph.[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, the U.S.'s Macuga, 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] Brignone then kept the Italian winning streak alive in speed races by winning the next two, a super-G at Cortina[27] and a downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (by 1/100 of a second over Goggia), enabling her to open up a double-digit point lead over Gut-Behrami.[28] But between them, Alice Robinson of New Zealand won a giant slalom held at Kronplatz, Italy, in a race where Hector, Brignone and Goggia failed to finish, and edged out Hector by four points for the season lead in that discipline.[29] And in the final race at Garmisch, Gut-Behrami won the super-G for her 46th career World Cup victory, placing her fifth all-time among women, behind only Shiffrin, Vonn, Annemarie Moser-Pröll, and Vreni Schneider and closing her deficit to Brignone in the overall standings down to 70 points.[30]
At long last, Shiffrin announced her upcoming return at the slalom in Courcheval, France on 30 January, a full nine weeks after her injury and less than a week before the start of the world championships.[31] At Courcheval, Ljutić posted her third slalom victory of the season, making her the first woman other than Schiffrin or Vhlová to win three slaloms in one season since Marlies Schild of Austria in 2012.[32]
Late season: the rise of Brignone, while Shiffrin reaches 100
After the worlds, in the first of two GS races in Sestriere, Italy, Brignone, who was sick with the flu since worlds, repeated her success and prevailed by four-tenths of a second, with Gut-Behrami failing to finish.[33] The next day, Brignone dominated again, winning her fourth GS of the season to move into second in the discipline, just 40 points behind Robinson with only two races remaining, while expanding her lead over Gut-Behrami (who finished second) to 180 points with only 12 events remaining.[34] In the slalom, after more time to recover and build strength, Shiffrin turned a slight lead over Ljutić after the first run into a wide victory on the second run, giving her a third victory for the season -- and an all-time record 100 World Cup victories in Alpine skiing overall, as well as tying the all-time record of 155 World Cup podium finishes that had been set by Sweden's Ingemar Stenmark almost 40 years ago.[35][36]
The next three races (2 DH and an SG) took place at Kvitfjell, Norway, and all were decided by hundredths of a second. In the first downhill, Hütter recovered from failing to podium before her home fans at Saalbach and won her second downhill of the season, edging out (by .05 seconds) Germany's Emma Aicher, a 21-year-old all-events skier reaching her first World Cup podium ever.[37] In the second, Aicher edged out Macuga (combined age: 43) by .03 seconds for her first World Cup win, while Brignone's two finishes just off the podium extended her overall season advantage over Gut-Behrami to 231 points.[38] Finally, in the super-G, Brignone nipped Gut-Behrami by .06 seconds for the win, which increased her lead over Gut-Behrami to 251 with just seven non-slaloms remaining (since neither currently competes in slalom).[39] The next events were technical races in Åre, Sweden: the giant slalom was once again won by Brignone, with Robinson again second, decreasing Robinson's lead in the discipline to just 20 points with only the finals remaining.[40] In the slalom, 29-year-old Katharina Truppe of Austria recorded her first World Cup victory in come-from-behind fashion, while first-run leader Shiffrin held on for third and thus broke the all-time World Cup podium record.[41]
Finally, the regular season came down to three speed races at La Thuile, Italy, near Brignone's hometown, but the first race -- the downhill -- was cancelled when heavy snowfall prevented either of the training runs from been completed.[42] The two giant slaloms went forward, though, with Germany's Aicher winning the first for her second World Cup victory, with Brignone third and Gut-Behrami fourth.[43] The second race was another Brignone victory, her 10th of the season, with Gut-Behrami finishing fourth again.[44] At the end of the race, Brignone had a 384-point lead over Gut-Behrami with just four races remaining -- but, since Gut-Behrami no longer skis slalom because of past injuries, the maximum number of points that Gut-Behrami could make up is only 300, meaning that Brignone's overall victory was assured.
Finals
The finals in all disciplines were held from 22 to 27 March 2025 in Sun Valley, Idaho, US.[45] 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, were eligible to compete in the finals, and only the top 15 finishers earned World Cup points.
In the first scheduled final, downhill, a combination of fresh snow in the morning and high winds in the evening forced the finals to be cancelled, thus handing the discipline crown to the current leader Brignone.[46] But the next day, though, the bad weather had moved out, and Gut-Behrami blew away the field in the super-G, winning the race by over a second to win the discipline championship for a record sixth time (2014, 2016, 2021, 2023-25), with 40-year-old Vonn (capturing her first World Cup podium in over seven years, since 15 March 2018, making her the oldest woman ever to podium in a World Cup race) in second and a disappointed Brignone in third.[47] In the giant slalom, Gut-Behrami won again, but Brignone's second place was sufficient to give her the discipline championship over Robinson, who failed to finish.[48] However, Gut-Behrami's win made her the first woman to achieve a "triple-double" of World Cup victories: 10 giant slalom wins to go with 24 super-Gs and 13 downhills (plus one combined, for a total of 48); the only men to accomplish it are Hermann Maier (1998-2009) (15 DH, 24 SG, 14 GS) and Pirmin Zurbriggen (1982-1990) (10 DH, 10 SG, 11 K).[49] In the slalom, the last race at finals, Shiffrin, now much further along in her recovery and in front of a supportive home crowd (including a number of girls dressed as Dalmatians, because Shiffrin was seeking victory number 101) blew out the field by over a second for her fourth win of the season; meanwhile, Ljutić hung on for her very first discipline championship at 20.[50]
After finals
Once finals and the World Cup season were over, many of the World Cup skiers competed in national championships as the final event of the Alpine season. One of those skiers was Brignone, who was a huge draw in her home country as the only Italian woman ever to win the overall women's championship, which she had just done for the second time. However, during the second run of the giant slalom on Alpe Lucia in Trentino during 3 April 2025, Brignone crashed, fracturing her left leg tibia in multiple places, also breaking the fibular head, and rupturing the ACL.[51][52] After surgery on 8 April, both her doctors and Italian ski officials stated that it was impossible to know whether Brignone would be able to defend her World Cup titles during the 2026 season or even whether she would be able to compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics, which are being hosted in her home region of Milan in February.[53]
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