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.
Hermann Maier is an Austrian former World Cup champion alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. Nicknamed the "Herminator", Maier ranks among the greatest alpine ski racers in history, with four overall World Cup titles, two Olympic gold medals, and three World Championship titles. His 54 World Cup race victories – 24 super-G, 15 downhills, 14 giant slaloms, and 1 combined – rank third on the men's all-time list behind Ingemar Stenmark's 86 victories and Marcel Hirscher's 67 victories. Until 2023 he held the record for the most points in one season by a male alpine skier, with 2000 points from the 2000 season. From 2000–2013 he also held the title of most points in one season by any alpine skier, until Tina Maze scored 2414 points in the 2013 season.
Franz Klammer is a former champion alpine ski racer from Austria. Klammer dominated the downhill event for four consecutive World Cup seasons (1975–78). He was the gold medalist at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, winning the downhill at Patscherkofel by a margin of 0.33 seconds with a time of 1:45.73. He won 25 World Cup downhills, including four on the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel. He also holds the record for the most victories (four) on the full course at Kitzbühel.
Alpine skiing at the 1988 Winter Olympics consisted of ten alpine skiing events, held February 15–27 at Nakiska on Mount Allan, a new ski area west of Calgary.
Alpine skiing has been contested at every Winter Olympics since 1936, when a combined event was held in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
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.
The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2009 were the 40th FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, held 2–15 February in France at Val-d'Isère, Savoie.
The 42nd World Cup season began in October 2007 in Sölden, Austria and concluded on 15 March 2008, at the World Cup Finals in Bormio, Italy.
Elisabeth Görgl is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria.
Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian-born Dutch World Cup alpine ski racer. Hirscher made his World Cup debut in March 2007. He competed primarily in slalom and giant slalom, as well as combined and occasionally in super G. Winner of a record eight consecutive World Cup titles, Hirscher has also won 11 medals at the Alpine Skiing World Championships, seven of them gold, a silver medal in slalom at the 2014 Winter Olympics, and two gold medals in the combined and giant slalom at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Due to his record number of overall titles and many years of extreme dominance of both slalom and giant slalom, he is considered by many, including his former rivals Henrik Kristoffersen, Kjetil Jansrud and Alexis Pinturault, to be the best alpine skier in history. He won a total of 67 World Cup races, ranking second on the male all-time list.
The FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 2015 were the 43rd FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, held from 2–15 February in the United States at Vail / Beaver Creek, Colorado.
The 48th World Cup season began on 26 October 2013, in Sölden, Austria, and concluded on 16 March 2014 at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. The defending overall champions from the 2013 season were Marcel Hirscher of Austria and Tina Maze of Slovenia. The overall titles were won by Hirscher and Anna Fenninger, also of Austria. The season was interrupted by the 2014 Winter Olympics that took place from 7 to 23 February in Sochi, Russia, with the alpine events at Rosa Khutor.
Michael Matt is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. He specialises in the Slalom discipline and has competed in three World Championships.
From October 25, 2014 to April 4, 2015, the following skiing events took place at various locations around the world.
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.
Manuel Feller is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. Feller specializes in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and made his World Cup debut in November 2012. In 2024, Feller won his first World Cup discipline title in slalom.
Katharina Liensberger is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer, and specialises in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Johannes Strolz is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. He won the gold medal in the combined at the 2022 Olympics. He specializes in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. He is the son of Hubert Strolz, the gold medalist in Combined at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary. He and his father became the first father-son duo to win gold in Alpine skiing at the Olympics.
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.
