Headline-grabbing acts gather as Alpine ski season prepares for take-off

From iconic names to intense rivalries to record-setting exploits to big-name comebacks and glamorous new venues, the 2025 Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup season has everything a sports fan could wish for.

Skiing’s best – including Mikaela Shiffrin (USA), Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI), Marco Odermatt (SUI) and Manuel Feller (AUT) – will criss-cross the globe chasing wins, season-long Crystal Globe titles and, in Saalbach, Austria in early February 2025, career-defining World Championship glory.

You do not want to miss a thing, and if you stick with the FIS online and on socials, you won’t.

Century looming for incomparable Shiffrin

The women’s giant slalom kicks the World Cup action off in Sölden, Austria on 26 October and thrillingly Shiffrin will be among the star attractions. The 29-year-old is rapidly approaching one of the great milestones in sport.

Shiffrin will line-up against reigning GS Crystal Globe winner Gut-Behrami, among others, knowing she is just three great performances away from hitting a truly astonishing 100 World Cup wins.

Shiffrin could reach the fabled three figures in the Gurgl slalom on 23 November, but perhaps it is written in the stars that she will do it on what has become home snow in Killington, USA over Thanksgiving weekend, 30 November – 1 December.

Swiss ready to reign again?

Gut-Behrami and the at times untouchable Marco Odermatt (SUI) hogged many of the headlines last season, and the Swiss duo’s efforts to repeat their Big Globe title-winning successes will be box office.

Just months after Gut-Behrami had to produce an array of career-best performances (eight wins and 16 podium places) to see off a similarly late-blooming Federica Brignone (six wins and seven podiums for the Italian) the veteran pair will no doubt light up the slopes once more as they go head-to-head in downhill, super G and GS.

Conny Hütter, who pipped Gut-Behrami to the downhill title on the final day of last season, will also be looking to once more put her name up in lights.

But, she and the rest know they will have to produce sustained brilliance to stop Shiffrin matching the legendary Annemarie Moser-Proll (AUT) by grabbing her sixth overall World Cup title.

Rivals gather to dethrone King Odi

Odermatt knows better than anyone what it takes to win across skiing’s speed and technical disciplines. The Swiss star recorded the highest ever World Cup points total of 2,042 in 2023, before landing the record winning margin 12 months later, beating teammate Loic Meillard by a vast 874 points.

Despite these seemingly eye-watering figures, Odermatt is quick to point out that statistics never tell the whole story. For one thing, if his 2024 speed battles with Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA) are half as good as they were last season, ski fans are in for another treat.

All eyes will certainly be trained on Beaver Creek, USA 6-7 December when the men’s speed season gets underway.

Before that Odermatt will take on Meillard– the man he has identified as his most likely Big Globe challenger - down the GS slopes. A true all-rounder, Meillard will also be in action when the men make an exciting return on 17 November to Finland for the first World Cup slalom down the ‘Black Levi’ slope in five seasons.

Massive names set for slalom start

In a stacked season, the men’s slalom races might just be the most eagerly anticipated of all.

First up there is the reigning champion Manuel Feller (AUT). The fan-favourite has always been electric viewing and last season added admirable consistency to the brilliance long on display, claiming four wins and a further six top-five finishes in his 10 races.

Then there are the likes of discipline great Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR), Olympic champion Clement Noel (FRA) and the ever-improving Linus Strasser (GER) to consider.

All this before a pair of one-time retired superstars who are already competing for the title of ‘Comeback King’.

Lucas Braathen, the 2023 slalom champion, and Marcel Hirscher, the double Olympic, three-time world and 67-time World Cup champion, are set to line up in 2025. After successfully fulfilling the FIS licence registration process, Braathen will race for Brazil, in honour of his mother, and Hirscher for the Netherlands, in honour of his mother.  

From physio table to top of the podium? 

Not only are fans getting hyped about returning racers but there are also a number of skiing’s greatest who are ready to exchange their crutches for poles.

Three-time world champion Alexis Pinturault (FRA) has been back on skis since August after left-knee surgery ended his 2024 season early. Meanwhile, reigning women’s Olympic slalom champion, Petra Vlhova (SVK) and five-time Olympic medallist Wendy Holdener (SUI) are both expected to make long-awaited comebacks in the coming weeks.

Add on the always unmissable Sofia Goggia – targeting 11-15 December when the women’s speed skiers will take on Beaver Creek’s iconic Birds of Prey piste for the first time in almost a decade – and you can see why expectations are sky high.

There will hopefully be more to come, with a pair of men’s skiing icons, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (NOR) and Marco Schwarz (AUT) battling to overcome on-going injury struggles. Neither skier has yet set a timetable on their return to racing, with Schwarz looking to get back on snow in October, while Kilde is fighting to recover fully from a persistent shoulder infection.  

Global glory hunting

All this and much more will culminate with two huge events in early 2025.

First, the 48^th FIS Alpine World Ski Championships will take centre stage, 4-16 February. Eleven months after staging the 2024 World Cup Finals, and 34 years after hosting the unforgettable 1991 Championships, the Austrian resort will welcome 150,000-plus spectators to watch 600-plus skiers from 60 nations chase golden memories.

And then in late March 2025, the best of the best will, for the first time ever, head to Sun Valley, Idaho to secure those longed-for Crystal Globes.

It is going to be a ride to remember. Hop on.