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.
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.
Nicole Hosp is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from Austria. She competed in all five disciplines and was a world champion, three-time Olympic medalist, and an overall World Cup champion.
Gustav Thöni is an Italian retired alpine ski racer.
Günther Mader is a former alpine ski racer and Olympic medalist from Austria. Born in Matrei am Brenner, Tyrol, he is one of only five men to have won World Cup races in all five alpine disciplines.
Michaela Kirchgasser is a retired Austrian alpine ski racer. She raced in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom, and also the combined.
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.
Marcel Hirscher is an Austrian former 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.
Žan Kranjec is a World Cup alpine ski racer from Slovenia, and primarily competes in the technical events of giant slalom and slalom. At the 2022 Winter Olympics, Kranjec won a silver medal in the giant slalom.
Victor Muffat-Jeandet is a French World Cup alpine ski racer.
Erik Read is a Canadian World Cup alpine ski racer specializing the technical events of slalom and giant slalom. Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, he represented Canada at two Winter Olympics and five World Championships.
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.
Loïc Meillard is a Swiss World Cup alpine ski racer and specializes in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Katharina Liensberger is an Austrian World Cup alpine ski racer, and specialises in the technical events of slalom and giant slalom.
Atle Lie McGrath is a Norwegian World Cup alpine ski racer, a member of the Norwegian Alpine Ski Team. He gained his first World Cup podium in December 2020 in a giant slalom at Alta Badia, Italy, and his first win in March 2022 in slalom at Flachau, Austria.
The men's slalom in the 2021 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup involved 11 events including the final, exactly as scheduled without any cancellations.
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.
The men's overall in the 2024 FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup is currently scheduled to consist of 39 events in four disciplines: downhill (DH), super-G (SG), giant slalom (GS), and slalom (SL). The season was originally scheduled with 45 events, but the first three events of the season were cancelled due to high winds and heavy snowfall. The cancelled giant slalom was subsequently rescheduled for Aspen on 1 March, and one of the canceled races from Zermatt-Cervinia was rescheduled to Val Gardena/Gröden on 12 December. As discussed under "Season Summary" below, there were additional cancellations and reschedulings after the opening races.
