The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France and the USA. It was soon backed by International Ski Federation president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon.
Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding competitive discipline. It involves racing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.
Piero "Pierino" Gros is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from northwestern Italy. He won the gold medal in slalom at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, and was the World Cup overall champion in 1974.
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.
Gustav Thöni is an Italian retired alpine ski racer.
Manfred Mölgg is an Italian former World Cup alpine ski racer. He specialized in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Elisabeth Görgl is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria.
Manuela Mölgg is a retired alpine ski racer from Italy, a specialist in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Fritz Dopfer is a German former World Cup alpine ski racer, specializing in the technical events of giant slalom and slalom.
Charles Francis Felix McGrath is an American retired World Cup alpine ski racer who competed in the Winter Olympics in 1988, and three World Championships.
Ragnhild Mowinckel is a retired Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer, representing the club SK Rival.
Paula Moltzan is an American World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in slalom.
Marco Schwarz is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. He focuses on the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, as well as the combined.
Alexandros Ioannis "AJ" Ginnis is a Greek-American World Cup alpine ski racer. Ginnis specializes in the technical events, with a focus on slalom. He made his World Cup debut in December 2014 and gained his first podium in February 2023. He then won the silver medal in the 2023 World Championships.
Mina Fürst Holtmann is a Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. She represents the sports club Bærums SK.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is a Norwegian-born Brazilian World Cup alpine ski racer. Until his retirement from World Cup racing in October 2023, he represented Norway in international competition. In March 2024, Braathen announced that he would return to ski racing, representing Brazil instead.
Amelia Josephine Hurt is an American World Cup alpine ski racer. She made her World Cup debut in November 2017 in Killington, Vermont, and competed for the U.S. at the World Championships in 2021 and the Winter Olympics in 2022.
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 men's slalom in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup consisted of ten events, including the discipline final. Due to three prior cancellations in other disciplines, the first men's race of the entire season was the slalom held at Gurgl, Austria on 18 November 2023. The original season schedule called for 13 events, but during the season three slaloms were canceled and not rescheduled. In an upset, Manuel Feller of Austria won his first career discipline title.
The men's overall in the 2025 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is scheduled to consist of 38 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH), super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), and slalom (SL). After cancellations in both of the prior two seasons, the two downhills scheduled on the Matterhorn in mid-November were removed from the schedule. Thus, for the third straight season, only the four major disciplines will be contested on the World Cup circuit.
