Aigner and Årsjö completed back-to-back technical doubles in Maribor, as Forster took a thrilling finale of the 2025 Para Alpine World Ski Champs

Veronika Aigner, Ebba Årsjö and Anna-Lena Forster retained their Slalom titles on the final day of the 2025 Para Alpine World Ski Championships in Maribor, Slovenia.

The women’s Vision Impaired slalom got proceedings underway on Tuesday with fog on the top half of the Habakuk course making life difficult for the early starters.

Having won gold in Saturday’s Giant Slalom, Veronika Aigner was first to go in the Slalom. She laid down a solid marker, but trailed teammate Elina Stary by two-tenths going into the second run.

With Italy’s Chiara Mazzel and guide Fabrizio Casal assured of at least bronze to go with their Giant Slalom silver, the race came down to the two Austrians who have duelled for Slalom supremacy in this season’s World Cup.

Aigner attacked on the second descent to set an imposing target. Her 18-year-old compatriot was still in front at the first split, but she was over a second behind at the second checkpoint. And 2021 silver medallist Stary, who missed the 2023/24 season with an anterior cruciate knee ligament tear, went off course to make a tearful exit. Guide Vanessa Josefa Arnold had to console her before the pair made their way to the bottom.

Stary’s DNF saw Slovakia’s Alexandra Rexova (guide Sophia Polak) take bronze and add to her two-medal haul from Espot 2023.

Ebba Årsjö matched Aigner’s tech double with a third consecutive Standing Slalom world title. The super Swede led her rivals by over two seconds at halfway, and a dynamic second run extended her winning margin to 5.03 seconds.

Mengqiu Zhang of People’s Republic of China was again the best of the rest as she backed up her Giant Slalom silver. Germany’s Anna-Maria Rieder took bronze for her seventh World Championship medal.

Årsjö now has a total of eight world titles to go with her two golds from the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games. She was clearly tired from her exertions at the finish and said, “They were really long runs. Luckily enough it was very flat.”

When asked how she would mark this latest triumph, she replied, “It’s travel day but I’ll celebrate when I get home to Sweden.”

The Sitting category provided the closest competition of the entire championships with the mist largely clearing before the contenders made their entrance.

Just 1.3 seconds separated the top five after the first run. Three-time reigning champion Anna-Lena Forster found herself in fourth place ahead of Saturday’s Giant slalom champion Momoka Muraoka . Spain’s Audrey Pascual Seco led the field with Chinese pair Wenjing Zhang and Sitong Liu close behind.

Muraoka made a strong start to her second run, but some wide turns late on cost her dear and she slipped behind Finland’s Nette Kiviranta.

Forster, who has won all five World Cup Slalom races so far this season, was aggressive and smooth as she doubled her advantage over Kiviranta from the first run to 3.51 seconds. It soon became clear how good a descent that was as Liu finished almost two seconds adrift.

Beijing 2022 Paralympic silver medallist Zhang struggled on the top section and was almost a second down on Forster at the first split. She lost more time to drop a position, guaranteeing teammate Liu a second medal in Maribor with just Pascual to go.

The 20-year-old from Madrid, who won gold at November’s World Para Surfing Championships in November, lost half a second of her 0.66 advantage over the German on the top section of the course. She was marginally down at the second checkpoint, but could not stay in touch as she finished 0.95 behind in silver.

For Forster, it was a fourth consecutive Slalom crown and a 10th world title in total after her Giant Slalom silver. Her nation’s flags were waving in the finish area as the 29-year-old ensured Germany maintained its record of winning gold at each Para Alpine Worlds this century.

When asked what she told herself ahead of her second run, Forster replied, “I said, ‘You can do this. You’re the best. Just go and put everything in.’ I’m so happy now.

“It felt so much better than the first run. I pushed myself… the first was not that cool. I’m very happy that I could do better in the second.” She revealed that she will celebrate with “dinner and then a party”.

Italy topped the medal table at the 2025 Para Alpine World Ski Championships with three golds and two silvers. France finished second with two golds and two bronze medals, just ahead of Austria who had two golds and one bronze. Sweden also won two golds.