‘She has the chance to be at the very top in four disciplines’: Aicher emerging as skiing’s next superstar

At the age of 21, Emma Aicher (GER/Head) is already achieving things few Alpine skiers have managed.

Two wins and a further seven top-10 finishes is impressive enough for an athlete in just her fourth season on the Audi FIS World Cup tour. But add on the fact those results were spread across three contrasting disciplines – a win and a second place in Downhill, a win and two top-10s in Super G and four top-10 finishes in Slalom – and it becomes clear why she is grabbing headlines worldwide.

Aicher has grown up an all-rounder, and, as she looks ahead to a summer that will likely be longer and harder for her than almost anyone else, it is obvious she has every intention of staying one.

‘You have to do it for the love of skiing’

“I like all of the disciplines, I like skiing,” Aicher revealed recently. “I think that makes it kind of easy, because I'm always doing the thing I like the most. Every morning I wake up and have so much fun.”

That sentiment is, for two people who know, the biggest reason why Aicher has a great chance to do what can often seem impossible.

Wolfgang Maier, Director of the German Ski Association (DSV) and one of the people charged with helping Aicher make her dreams a reality, agrees wholeheartedly.

“It’s the base for everything. If you have a person who loves skiing, who wants to ski every day, you can develop a skier for four disciplines,” Maier said.

“Now, we have to support her to ski more than the others because she has the chance to be at the very top in four disciplines.”

2025: a breakthrough season

The final month of the 2024/25 season gave an excellent indication of just why Maier believes Aicher has a shot at greatness.

Before the start of the 2025 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, Aicher was certain her best opportunity to break through was going to come in the Slalom. Her three best results had all arrived in the most technical discipline and she was even hoping to get selected to ski Slalom in the new Team Combined event. But suddenly, she found her speed.

Sixth in the World Championship Super G and sixth in the Downhill meant Aicher was no longer required for the Slalom leg of the Team Combined. Instead, she skied Downhill in partnership with Germany’s star performer, Lena Dürr (Head).

Aicher stunned the crowd in Saalbach, producing the second quickest Downhill of all to put Dürr in prime position. It did not work out for the two-time World Cup winner, with a huge mistake costing the pair the chance of a medal.

But Aicher had made her mark.

And it proved to be just the beginning. In the first speed event after the World Championships, the 21-year-old flew to second in Kvitfjell, Norway. A day later she followed up her first World Cup podium with a first win.

If that was not enough, Aicher then threw in her first Super G triumph, in La Thuile, France less than a fortnight later.

"I didn't think this was going to happen (so soon), especially in Downhill,” Aicher said at the time. “I thought maybe in Slalom, but I'm really happy.”

Life as a top-class all-rounder

It is this kind of attitude that makes Gisin, a skier who has been inside the top-15 end-of-season Crystal Globe rankings in all four disciplines at least twice, certain Aicher can follow her extraordinary example.

“She's mentally extremely strong, and she has such a great way of doing things. She's so pumped. She's very, very calm,” Gisin said, before adding; “(I’m) extremely (proud) especially because for a while she was also in the same ski club as I am in Engelberg.

“I remember her as a little girl. I didn't know her that well, but I remember when she came onto the World Cup, I was always following her path. I knew she was very strong.

‘I love that she's holding up the all-rounder flag.”

The 31-year-old knows better than anyone just how demanding life as an all-rounder is.

“You start to realize how hard it is to always be ready every training, because you don't get any training throughout the season,” Gisin explained. “So, every single one (training session) has to be very good, and you always have to push yourself to be as fast and as good as you can.”

Aicher clearly has the desire and the fortitude to follow such a path. Now, it is down to Maier and his team to make sure she has what she needs.

“In my opinion, you must have the most training in summer and in autumn on the technical side. Then you must go to South America for one or two weeks to do speed training. And then finally, in the season you always focus more and more on the speed,” he said.

“This our challenge for the next years, to bring her technique and speed up to the same level.”

Watch this space, something truly spectacular is on the cards for one quietly spoken German.