Sölden starts the ski racing season in style.
Surprises, Samba and Shining Stars
Words: Matt Garcka
Last weekend marked the opening of the Audi FIS World Cup ski racing season, a whirlwind of carnage, comebacks and clean sweeps. Over 18,000 ski fans from Austria and beyond crowded onto the Rettenbach Glacier over the weekend, fuelled by an unbeatable atmosphere and the anticipation of an epic winter season ahead. The women started the action with the Giant Slalom competition on Saturday, before it was over to the men on Sunday.
Saturday’s action set the scene for a season opening weekend to remember… Even before they could break out of the start gates, the event served up serious drama as Swiss powerhouse Lara Gut-Behrami, last season’s GS and Super-G queen, was ruled out with a knee injury. A tearful Gut-Behrami promised fans a return at Killington in late November.
It seemed like normal service would be resumed as U.S.A’s G.O.A.T Mikaela Shiffrin kicked things off in her typical take-no-prisoners style, leading after the first run with a solid 0.22-second gap over New Zealand’s Alice Robinson and Italian heavy-hitter Federica Brignone close behind. The U.S. team added some unexpected spice in the second run, as injury returnees Nina O’Brien and Katie Hensien charged through from bibs 28 and 47, with Hensien achieving a remarkable personal best in fourth.
But the real stoke came when Austria’s Julia Scheib, riding the wave of the local crowd’s roars, snagged the lead from a late position on the course. With 13 still to ski, it became clear that she was at least going to be the top Austrian. As the race came down to its final three, Scheib still held the advantage before Brignone, looking all but unstoppable, came into the lead. Then came Robinson, who missed the Italian’s combined time by just 17 hundredths of a second.
As is quite often the case, it all came down to Mikaela Shiffrin. The win would mark her 98th World Cup victory, edging her ever closer to the magic century. It wasn’t to be in Sölden however (a resort where she still only has two wins), as Shiffrin skied an uncharacteristically slow second run and went into fifth place. This was much to the delight of the Austrian crowd, as it ensured Julia Scheib in third and her first World Cup podium (Austria’s first in the discipline since December 2019 on home snow in Linz).
This confirmed the podium with Federica Brignone as the winner. At 34 years old she became the oldest female World Cup winner ever, while simultaneously becoming the first Italian to win three consecutive World Cup GS titles since Denis Karbon in 2007/08. A fitting way to mark her 70th podium, and fifth in Sölden. Alice Robinson took her 11th World Cup podium in second place.
24 hours later, it was the men’s turn to attack, starting with a fresh round of drama as Switzerland’s hopeful, Loïc Meillard, withdrew due to an unexpected back injury just hours before the start. As if this wasn’t enough of a shake up, the ruler of last season’s slopes and surely the man to beat, bib number one, Marco Odermatt, didn’t complete the first run. After winning nine out of 10 World Cup Giant Slaloms in 2023/24 season, it was a disappointing start and the simple mistake on the steep will cost him valuable points at the very start of the season.
At this point, the doors were wide open. It was anybody’s day. And it turned out to be Norway’s. Seizing his chance, first run leader Alexander Steen Olsen clocked his first World Cup Giant Slalom win ahead of his compatriots, Henrik Kristoffersen in second, and Atle Lie McGrath in third. This marked Norway’s first GS clean sweep and its first podium hat-trick since 2015 (at the Val Gardena Super-G).
This is only half the story, though. The weekend’s wildcards were really the talk of the hill, with Austrian-born Marcel Hirscher taking advantage of FIS’s new rule to return as a competitor, now representing the Netherlands. Hirscher placed 23rd, bringing the energy that only a five-and-a-half-year hiatus could build. Meanwhile, Brazil’s Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, returning from a brief retirement and a season on the sidelines, took his place in ski racing history by making his way up from bib 41 to finish fourth, just 0.24 seconds off the podium. In a celebration straight from the Brazilian carnival, he burst into a samba at the finish, setting social media ablaze and proving he’s here to shake things up.
While there isn’t another FIS World Cup race until mid-November in Levi, Finland, where the Slalom season will commence, there are already so many exciting stories to follow this season. The 2024-25 FIS World Cup opener has truly set the stage for what’s shaping up to be an unmissable ride.