The Alpine World Cup Tour is back in North America
Nov 24, 2021·Alpine SkiingWe're back! After spending one season away from North American ski resorts, the Alpine World Cup Tour is back. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, events in North America had to be cancelled during the 2020-2021 season, however this season, athletes will have the opportunity to race in Lake Louise (CAN), Killington (USA) and Beaver Creek (USA).
Men’s event in Lake Louise (CAN)
On Monday 22nd November 2021, coaches inspected the course ahead of the training sessions for the Downhill event which will be taking place on the 26th and 27th of November. Part of the athletes attending, will be last season’s Downhill Crystal Globe winner, Beat Feuz (SUI) along with the runner up, Matthias Mayer (AUT). Heading into the first Downhill race of the season, the fight between these two will surely be fierce. The first training session took place Tuesday 23rd where Austrian skier, Max Franz, set the best time of 1:48.93 in the session.
On Sunday 28th November, athletes will be competing in the first Super G of the season. The last time a Men’s Alpine World Cup Tour was held in Lake Louise, Matthias Mayer (AUT) won the event with Italian skier, Dominik Paris, coming 0.40 seconds behind him.
Women’s event in Killington (USA)
Whilst the Men’s speed events are taking place in Lake Louise, the Women’s will be competing in their tech events in Killington. Last week, the Women’s tour made its stop in Levi (FIN), where we saw Petra Vlhova (SLO) win the Slalom event ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) and Lena Duerr from Germany. Killington will be hosting both a GS and Slalom races, with the GS planned to take place on the 27th and the Slalom on the 28th.
In 2019 we saw Marta Bassino (ITA) win the GS event followed by Italian teammate, Federica Brignone and Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) competing the podium. Nonetheless, the home favourite Mikaela Shiffrin, took home the win in the Slalom event, followed by Petra Vlhova (SLO) and Anna Swenn Larsson (SWE).
Women’s event in Lake Louise (CAN)
Once the Women’s events finish in Killington, the athletes will be heading straight to Lake Louise to take part in the speed events. On the 3rd and 4th December, athletes will be competing in Downhill and then transitioning to the Super G event on the 5th.
Last time racing in Lake Louise, Ester Ledecka (CZE) won the first Downhill race followed by Swiss skier Corinne Suter and Austrian skier Stephanie Venier. In the second Downhill race in Lake Louise, Nicole Schmidhofer (AUT) came first then followed by, Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) and Francesca Marsaglia (ITA). In the Super G event, retired German skier, Viktoria Rebensburg, won the event ahead of Italian skier Nicol Delago and Swiss skier Corinne Suter.
Men’s event in Beaver Creek (USA)
Once the Men’s events have concluded in Lake Louise, the athletes will make their way directly to Beaver Creek to complete in two Super G events and one Downhill event. The Super G events are planned to take place on the 3rd and 5th of December, whereas, the Downhill race is planned to take place on the 4th.
Last time in Beaver Creek, two Swiss skiers won the Downhill and Super G events. Marco Odermatt (SUI) won the Downhill event ahead of Norwegian skier, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Austrian skier, Matthias Mayer. Feuz Beat (SUI), won the Super G ahead of Johan Clarey (FRA) and Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT).
Not having had any Alpine World Cup events held in North America last season, the athletes are impatient to get back on the slopes and push their limits to claim as many World Cup points as possible.