The Alpine skiing World Cup launches its 60th season this weekend with giant slalom races on an Austrian glacier, but the absence of key contenders like Federica Brignone and Aleksander Steen Olsen due to injuries sets the stage for a dramatic Olympic year. With the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics looming in February 2026, Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt emerge as top favorites, navigating a sport grappling with safety concerns and a roster thinned by setbacks.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) has intensified safety measures following the tragic death of Italian skier Matteo Franzoso in a downhill training crash in Chile in September. Mandatory protective airbags, which inflate before a crashing skier hits the ground in speed events, and cut-resistant underwear are now standard, alongside ongoing efforts to enhance course safety for both races and training.
A Season of High Stakes
The 2025-26 season features 38 men’s and 37 women’s races, primarily in Europe, with North American stops for men in Copper Mountain, Colorado (Nov. 27-28) and Beaver Creek (Dec. 4-7), and for women in Copper Mountain (Nov. 29-30) and Mont Tremblant, Quebec, the following week. The absence of reigning women’s overall champion Brignone, who suffered a broken leg and torn ACL in a crash at the Italian championships in April, casts uncertainty over her participation in her home Olympics. Similarly, Norway’s Steen Olsen, last year’s men’s giant slalom opener winner, will miss Sunday’s race due to a lingering knee injury.
Shiffrin’s Resilience
Mikaela Shiffrin, the American skiing legend with 101 World Cup victories, enters the season stronger after a traumatic crash in Killington, Vermont, last November that caused severe abdominal injuries and lingering post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite scaling back to slalom and giant slalom last season, she added two milestone wins to her record. “I feel much stronger now than at the end of last season,” Shiffrin said, crediting her team’s support. “We dive into the season with all the unknowns, but with a full heart and strong turns.”
A victory in Saturday’s giant slalom could set Shiffrin on a path to another historic season. Winning the slalom title would make her the first skier to claim nine titles in one discipline, while an overall World Cup title would tie her with Austrian legend Annemarie Moser-Pröll’s record of six. Her primary rival, Swiss star Lara Gut-Behrami, the 2024 overall runner-up who plans to retire after this season, aims to challenge Shiffrin’s dominance.
Odermatt’s Balancing Act
On the men’s side, Marco Odermatt, the Swiss phenom, is poised to pursue a fifth consecutive overall World Cup title, a feat only Austria’s Marcel Hirscher has achieved. Despite failing to finish both giant slaloms last season, Odermatt secured titles in giant slalom, super-G, and downhill, leading Switzerland to 17 race wins. “I worked hard to improve in downhill, but it came at the expense of giant slalom,” Odermatt admitted, describing the “balancing act” of competing across disciplines. A strong performance in Sunday’s opener could solidify his status as a favorite for both the season and the Olympics.
Notable Comebacks and Absences
The season sees the return of American icon Lindsey Vonn, who has enlisted Norwegian legend Aksel Lund Svindal as a coach to bolster her pursuit of additional wins beyond her 82 career victories. Meanwhile, Hirscher, the eight-time overall champion now racing for the Netherlands, planned a comeback but will miss the opener due to illness, following a knee injury last season. Other prominent absentees include Italy’s Marta Bassino, Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhová, and men’s stars Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Cyprien Sarrazin, all sidelined by long-term injuries. France’s Alexis Pinturault, the 2021 overall champion, returns after two injury-shortened seasons but will focus solely on giant slalom.
As the World Cup heads into an Olympic season marked by resilience and recovery, Shiffrin and Odermatt stand as beacons of excellence in a field tested by adversity. The Sölden races this weekend will set the tone for a fiercely competitive campaign culminating on the Olympic stage.
