Season titles up for grabs as European Cup Finals begin
Mar 16, 2024·Alpine Skiing
The European Cup season is set for an exciting conclusion in Norway over the next week with technical races in Hafjell and speed contests in Kvitfjell to decide several title races in both women's and men's disciplines.
After races in 28 resorts in eight European countries since the season began in early December, the 2023/24 campaign all comes down to one final chance for glory from 16-22 March.
Women's overall title race goes down to the wire
In a pulsating race for the overall crystal medal, just one point separates the top two skiers, with the first seven athletes in the rankings all within 100 points of each other.
Janine Schmitt (SUI) leads the overall standings due to her consistency throughout the season. Despite not recording any victories, she has finished in the top 10 nine times, across three disciplines, in 19 total races to score 485 points.
Schmitt will need to keep piling up the points across the board in the finals to secure the medal, however, because Emily Schoepf (AUT) is breathing down her neck, one point behind in the overall standings.
Schoepf is a downhill specialist who has already clinched the discipline title and has two wins and four podiums from her six races on the long boards this season.
But given that she can't boast the all-around ability of Schmitt, Schoepf will need another dominant performance in downhill — where 87 per cent of her points have come from this season — to challenge for the overall title.
Beyond the top two, Karen Clement (FRA) is only seven points off the overall lead and has already won in three disciplines this season: downhill, super-G and giant slalom.
Clement has only competed in eight European Cup races this season, in addition to 14 World Cup starts, but she has made it count when she has been on the European Cup circuit, recording top-five finishes in six contests.
Three of the four discipline titles are also still in play at the finals, with Schmitt hoping to hold onto her super-G lead to potentially claim two crystal medals.
Traninger in pole position for men's overall crystal medal
On the men's side, Manuel Traninger (AUT) will look to clinch the overall title in Norway as well as put himself in contention for the downhill crystal medal.
Traninger leads the overall standings by 76 points over slalom specialist Theodor Braekken (NOR), and sits in third place in downhill, just 14 points off the lead.
Braekken's (NOR) dominant slalom season has seen him already claim the discipline medal, but it might not be enough to see him overtake Traninger for the overall title.
Braekken has two wins and two runner-up finishes in his last five slalom races, but is unlikely to score a major points haul at the finals, given that all but eight of his points this season have come in slalom.
Traninger, on the other hand, has shown good form in both speed disciplines, with one victory and eight top-five results in downhill and super-G this season.
With the slalom title already going to Braekken and Florian Loriot (FRA) having secured the super-G medal, downhill is the discipline to watch out for at the finals.
Lars Roesti (SUI) leads Stefan Rieser (AUT) by nine points at the top of the standings, with Traninger just five points further back ahead of what is shaping up as a winner-takes-all battle on the 1994 Olympic piste in Kvitfjell on 21 March.
In giant slalom, meanwhile, Jonas Stockinger (GER) takes a 72-point lead into the finals after a consistent season in which he has recorded two podiums and five top-five results in eight races.
Leo Anguenot (FRA) and Jesper Wahlqvist (NOR) have won two giant slalom races each, but Anguenot has only participated in three contests and Wahlqvist has lacked Stockinger's season-long consistency.
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