FIS Race Talk launches Alpine Ski season in style
Oct 25, 2024·Alpine Skiing
The wait is over, the Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup 2024/25 is here. The revamped FIS Race Talk – live streamed worldwide on FIS TV for the very first time – launched the new season in style in Sölden, Austria on Friday.
All five reigning Crystal Globe champions, plus the 2023/24 Longines Rising Stars gathered to answer questions from fans, teammates and renowned commentator and Director of FIS TV Nick Fellows. With all admitting that the 2025 World Championships looms large in their hopes and dreams for the season, there were also updates on the much-anticipated event and to cap it all off, Marco Odermatt (SUI) received yet another trophy.
Globe winners reveal all
The questions for the very best of last season veered from digging for serious race-focused info – for instance Conny Hütter (AUT) revealed she does not feel she is “defending” the downhill Globe she won in such dramatic circumstances in March but is instead chasing a whole set of new titles – to the slightly more light-hearted; with a red-faced Manu Feller unable to tell one fan just why he is “so sexy”.
The trophy-ladened Marco Odermatt (SUI) and Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) underlined just what a team sport ski racing really is when they answered questions as to how they maintain motivation.
“For me, the most important thing is the people you're surrounded by,” the four-time 2023/24 Globe winner Odermatt said. “I think if you have good people around you, good teammates, good family, friends, you will choose right for sure.”
Gut-Behrami will also be leaning on others this season, although she knows there is only one person who can make her get out of bed in the morning.
“I do think family has a big role, because it has been like a journey for us all together, (but) in the end I am still skiing because when I am on the slope and I make a turn like I want it still feels amazing,” the overall, GS and super-G champ said. “It’s a freedom thing I feel on the snow.”
The three-time Olympic medallist, who has been an elite racer for 17 years already, then shared her dream retirement plans.
“It would be nice to again race in Cortina (in 2026), just because it will be the first and only Olympic Games where my family could be with me,” the 33-year-old said. “It would be an amazing end to the career, not talking about results, but the fact that I could have kids and family around.”
Family loomed large for Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) too. The woman who is just three World Cup wins away from reaching the magical 100 mark, is expecting to have injured fiancé Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) supporting her at plenty of races this season. And she did not totally rule out his involvement being somewhat official…
“We talk a lot about skiing anyway, so he sort of has a bit of a coaching role anyway,” Shiffrin said laughing, before she added, “but he likes to talk about skiing with anybody.”
While the USA racer may not appear to have too many bad days on the slopes, she did share some valuable advice for wannabe racers too.
Manuel Feller (AUT) knows all about challenging times, admitting to host Fellows that he “was in a deep valley some years ago”. But now the flamboyant 32-year-old is a Globe winner for the first time in his career.
“I feel confident, skiing is more fun than ever before,” Feller said. “Right now, I'm just enjoying every day that makes (skiing) as much fun as it does right now, and hopefully I can do some more years.”
The well-known music lover shared that despite all the success, there is still room for the odd party. When the group was asked if any of them had ever lost or broken a longed-for Crystal Globe, the Austrian sheepishly admitted he could not find his following an after party.
Longines Rising Stars 2023/24
Zrinka Ljutic (CRO) and Alexander Steen Olsen (NOR) may have been named the Longines Rising Stars of 2023/24 but both now have far loftier ambitions.
The 20-year-old Croatian, who finished second in slalom three times last season, summed it up best. “I left hungry because I really wanted to win last season.” She then went on to make it clear that her ambitions stretch way beyond just grabbing that maiden triumph.
“In the future that’s (skiing all disciplines) kind of the plan, the big plan is that I will be confident to win the overall one day,” she declared.
After Ljutic gently turned down a fan’s marriage proposal – all in a day’s work for a top skier seemingly – it was Steen Olsen’s turn. The Norwegian knows what it is like to top a World Cup podium, having won slalom in Palisades Tahoe, USA in 2023. But he has had to learn a few things since that breakout victory.
“The level, especially in slalom, is so high. So many different guys can compete for the win,” he said. “So it's been tough to find stable speed and also to be able to defend a good position after the first run is difficult, with a lot of ideas going through the head between the runs.”
The 23-year-old is grateful for the support of his famously close team, Norway’s ‘Attacking Vikings’. And one thing is certain, he too wants to keep expanding his skills.
“I’m not ready to a specialist in one discipline,” Steen Olsen declared. “I really enjoy combining more disciplines and having that challenge and not making the days the same every day. So I will keep going with slalom and GS and maybe put some super-G in there sometimes.”
All eyes on Saalbach 2025
Home hope Conny Hütter summed up best what the Alpine skiing world is most looking forward to in 2024/25.
“I know Saalbach (2025) have put everything they have into the (World) Championships, it will be amazing,” she said, before answering the question on the lips of so many Austrians.
“Maybe I can repeat everything,” Hütter said, referring to that downhill triumph she pulled off on the Saalbach slope at the World Cup Finals in March. “We all know it will be a lot of pressure, especially for the Austrian team.”
Florian Phleps, the FIS Saalbach 2025 Project Leader, revealed that World Championship fever is already high back home. Some sessions have completely sold out and he urged fans to get their tickets now.
“In Austria hospitality is one of the key issues in tourism and this is what everybody will expect,” Phleps said. “There will be a great fan mile entering the finish area, into the stadium. Local food and beverage, good music, entertainment. There's also the chance to watch the races next to the race tracks.
“So, for every fan who hasn't been in Austria yet this is the chance to come to Saalbach for the World Championships.”
Two people who will definitely be there are Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt and they took to the stage alongside Longines CEO Matthias Breschan. Shiffrin, a Longines Ambassador of Elegance, and Odermatt, part of the Longines family since 2018, were sporting exclusive new timepieces dedicated to the 2025 World Ski Championships.
The duo, both defending giant slalom world champions, will be back in Saalbach 4-16 February to chase more global glory.
Odermatt crowned ‘Skieur D’Or’ 2024
Finally, Marco Odermatt added another glittering trophy to his bulging cabinet when he was presented with the prestigious Skieur D’Or 2024 – skier of the 2023/24 season – by the International Association of Ski Journalists (AIJS).
The award, in its 62nd year, clearly reflects Odermatt’s outstanding performances, with his 13 World Cup wins delivering four more Crystal Globes. But it is also indicative of the Swiss skier’s open nature with fans, enthusiastic support of fellow racers and generous availability to the international media.
Women’s Globe winners Lara Gut-Behrami (overall, super-G and GS champion), Mikaela Shiffrin (slalom champion for the eighth time) and Conny Hütter (downhill champ) plus strong performers Cyprian Sarrazin (second in the men’s downhill), Loic Meillard (second overall and in GS) and Federica Brignone (second to Gut-Behrami three times) all received support. But ultimately, nobody could deny Odermatt his second Serge Lang Trophy.
The Swiss skier now has idol Pirmin Zurbriggen in his sights in more ways than one. Not only is he just three triumphs away from matching Zubriggen’s Swiss leading mark of World Cup victories, but perhaps he can also chase down the great man’s record four Skieur D’Or awards.
