Born in Owen Sound, Ontario, Yurkiw made her World Cup debut at Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria, in a downhill event in January 2007. In 2015, she achieved a personal best at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy when she placed 2nd in the DH discipline. She went on to achieve three more World Cup podiums.
On December 16, 2009, a crash during a training run at Val d'Isere resulted in an ACL tear, MCL tear, patellar tendon tear and tears in both the lateral and medial miniscus in her left knee. She did not compete on home soil at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia.
Prior to debuting on the world stage, she had much success as a junior ski racer. She made her debut on the Nor-Am Cup on March 10, 2004, held at her home club, Georgian Peaks. From 2005 to 2009, she reached the podium seventeen times, having won gold eight times in all disciplines but slalom. She also had success racing on the GMC Cup (also known as Pontiac Cup), a non-FIS sanctioned ski series that challenges Canada's most promising skiers. In 2007, Larisa competed on the South American Cup, having posted four top 10 results.
Yurkiw picked up a silver medal at the 2008 FIS Junior World Ski Championships in Formigal, Spain in the combined discipline. From 2006 to 2008, she posted three more top 10 results at this event.
She earned two gold medals at the 2008 Canadian National Championships in Super-G and downhill, and three silver medals in 2009. Since she was still considered a junior in both 2008 and 2009, she went on to become the Canadian National Junior Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and slalom.
Yurkiw announced her retirement on May 11, 2016, via social media, citing her desire to preserve her health. This had come after the best season of her career.
Hannelore (Hanni) Wenzel is a retired Liechtensteiner alpine ski racer. Wenzel is a former Olympic, World Cup, and world champion. She won Liechtenstein's first-ever Olympic medal at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, and its first two Olympic gold medals four years later in Lake Placid, New York.
Tina Maze is a retired Slovenian World Cup alpine ski racer.
Renate Götschl is an Austrian former alpine ski racer. She is a two-time individual World Champion in the combined (1997) and downhill (1999), and has won a total of 9 World Championships medals. She also won two Olympic medals in 2002, the bronze medal in downhill and the silver medal in the combined.
Marlies Raich is a retired Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. She specializes in the technical disciplines of slalom and giant slalom. Schild won four Olympic medals, with silvers in the combined (2006) and slalom and a bronze in slalom (2006). She has seven World Championship medals and has won five World Cup season titles.
Alexandra Meissnitzer is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. Her specialities were the downhill, super-G, and giant slalom disciplines.
Maria Höfl-Riesch is a former German alpine ski racer. She is a three-time Olympic champion, two-time World champion, an overall World Cup champion and five-time World junior champion.
Johannes "Hannes" Reichelt is a retired Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer. He competed mainly in downhill and super-G, as well as in giant slalom.
Elisabeth Görgl is a retired World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria.
Lara Gut-Behrami is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer who competes in all disciplines and specializes in the speed events of downhill and Super-G. She won the gold medal in the super-G event at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. With 45 World Cup victories to her name across 3 disciplines, she is one of the all-time greats in Alpine skiing.
Carlo Janka is a Swiss former alpine ski racer. Born in Obersaxen, in the canton of Graubünden, he had the winter sports facilities right in front of his home. Janka has won gold medals at both the Winter Olympics and the World Championships, as well as one World Cup overall title, one discipline title and also, one unofficial alpine combined title.
Christof Innerhofer is an Italian World Cup alpine ski racer, the 2011 world champion in super-G. He competed in all five alpine disciplines and specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G.
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. Kjetil is the current host of popular tv reality show Alt for Norge.
Anna Veith is an Austrian former alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She was the overall World Cup champion for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
Christina Weirather is a retired Liechtensteiner World Cup alpine ski racer. She won a bronze medal in Super-G for Liechtenstein at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
Andrew Weibrecht is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and two-time Olympic medalist from the United States.
Ragnhild Mowinckel is a retired Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer, representing the club SK Rival.
Michelle Gisin is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer and competes in all disciplines. A two-time Olympic gold medalist, she won the Women's combined event in 2018 Winter Olympics, and Women's combined at the 2022 Winter Olympics. Born in Samedan, Graubünden, Gisin is the younger sister of alpine ski racers Marc and Dominique Gisin.
Valérie Grenier is a Canadian World Cup alpine ski racer. She started skiing in all disciplines and later specialized in giant slalom and super-G, with some occasional starts in downhill.
Nina Ortlieb is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer, and specializes in the speed events of downhill and super-G. She is the daughter of Patrick Ortlieb, the Olympic gold medalist in downhill in 1992 and world champion in 1996.
The women's downhill competition in the 2016 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved nine events, including the season finale in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
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