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.
Sarah Schleper, also known as Sarah Schleper de Gaxiola, is former American, now Mexican alpine skier with dual Mexican citizenship via her marriage to a Mexican citizen, whose career started in 1995.
Erika Hess is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Switzerland. One of the best female racers of the 1980s, Hess had 31 World Cup wins, four slalom titles, and two overall titles. She also won six World Championship gold medals between 1982 and 1987, and took bronze in the slalom at the 1980 Winter Olympics at age 17. Hess missed another medal in 1985, when she led after the first run of the slalom at the "Stelvio" course at Bormio, but failed to finish the second leg.
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.
Thomas Fanara is a former French World Cup alpine ski racer.
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.
Kjetil Jansrud is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic champion. He competed in all alpine disciplines apart from slalom, and his best event was the giant slalom where he has six World Cup podiums and an Olympic silver medal. Since 2012, he had concentrated on the speed events, where all but two of his World Cup victories had come. At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, he won the super-G and placed third in the downhill. At the World Championships in 2019 at Åre, Jansrud won gold in the downhill.
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.
Paula Moltzan is an American World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in slalom.
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.
Katharina Liensberger is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer, and specialises in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is a former Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer from Hokksund and represents the sports club Bærums SK.
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 is currently scheduled to consist of eleven 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 two slaloms were canceled and not rescheduled.
