After the races in Bormio, the Men’s tour heads to Adelboden, Switzerland, for a Giant Slalom race on Saturday, followed by a Slalom on Sunday.
Adelboden is a Swiss Alpine village in the Bernese Oberland region. It’s known for the ski resort of Adelboden-Lenk, host of the FIS Ski World Cup. Adelboden-Lenk is one of the largest and most attractive snow sports regions in Switzerland. 72 high-performance lift facilities provide access to a piste network of just over 210 kilometers.
The Alpine Ski World Cup Adelboden on the Chuenisbärgli Mountain will take place on Saturday with the Giant Slalom and on Sunday with the Slalom. The event is officially recognized as one of the "Swiss Top Sport" events, and one of Switzerland's fourteen foremost sporting attractions. Adelboden is also part of the Club 5+ Alpine Classics, a union of the leading alpine ski race organizers from all over the world. It was founded in 1988 upon the idea of World Cup founder and sports journalist Serge Lang. Charter members had been the "Five Downhill classic sites in the Alps", Gardena/Gröden (ITA), Garmisch (GER), Kitzbühel (AUT), Wengen (SUI), Val d’Isere (FRA).
Adelboden, Wengen, and Kitzbühel are the only venues that have been part of the World Cup circuit since its foundation in 1967.
Adelboden's World Cup Hill "Chuenisbärgli" is one of the classics of the Ski World Cup and the home of the world’s most challenging Giant Slalom run. In the Zielhang section, the extreme steepness (60%) of the track is a challenge even for the best in the world.
Racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 1730 m (Giant Slalom) 1513 (Slalom)
Finish Elevation: 1310 m (Giant Slalom) 1302 (Slalom)
Vertical Drop: 420 m (Giant Slalom) 211 (Slalom)
Max. slope: 60 %
Adelboden (SUI)
January 6th Giant Slalom / Men 1st run 10:30 / 2nd run 13:30 CET
January 7th Slalom / Men 1st run 10:30 / 2nd run 13:30 CET
Austrian Marcel Hirscher won nine times in Adelboden (5 Slalom and 4 Giant Slalom).
In 2019 the Giant Slalom in Adelboden was a super exciting race, full of goosebumps moments with Marcel Hirscher at the end grabbing a 4th win in this discipline on the Chuenisbärgli ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen and Thomas Fanara.
On January 13, 2019, the Slalom showdown from Adelboden took place under continuous snowfall but whatever the conditions, Marcel Hirscher mastered the Chuenisbärgli once again. He took his 9th World Cup win in Adelboden ahead of Clément Noel and Henrik Kristoffersen.
Racecourse facts:
Start Elevation: 1730 m (Giant Slalom), 1513 (Slalom)
Finish Elevation: 1310 m (Giant Slalom), 1302 (Slalom)
Vertical Drop: 420 m (Giant Slalom), 211 (Slalom)
Distance: 1290 m (Giant Slalom), 622 (Slalom)
Max. slope: 60 %
Average slope: 30%
January 6th Giant Slalom / Men 1st run 10:30 - 2nd run 13:30 CET
January 7th Slalom / Men 1st run 10:30 - 2nd run 13:30 CET
Last season Marco Odermatt celebrated his fourth victory in the fifth Giant Slalom of the season in an impressive manner setting the best time in both runs.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in second place +0.73 seconds behind Odermatt. Loic Meillard (+1.66) finished in third place in a 1-3 Swiss podium.
After DNF the day before in the Giant Slalom, Lucas Braathen's reaction was two excellent runs, setting the best time in both of them, to win his third race of the season. Braathen's teammate and friend Atle Lie McGrath finished in second place 0.71 seconds behind. Linus Strasser (+0.92) rounded out the podium. The 30-year-old fought his way to the tenth Top-3 of his career. It's his third successive podium in Adelboden.
Adelboden Alpine Ski World Cup Races Preview.
Giant Slalom
Marco Odermatt won the first World Cup Giant Slalom of the Season in Val d'Isère, and the following two held in Alta Badia. Odermatt is the first male to win each of the opening three World Cup Giant Slalom races of a season since Ted Ligety in 2010-2011. Only Ingemar Stenmark (all 10 in 1978-1979) has had a longer winning streak from the beginning of a season in Men's World Cup Giant Slalom.
In the last two seasons, Marco Odermatt was the absolute dominator of the discipline. He is the reigning Olympic Champion, World Champion, and Crystal Globe winner in the Men's Giant Slalom.
The 26-year-old Swiss has won each of the last six men's World Cup Giant Slalom events, since Marco Schwarz was victorious in Palisades Tahoe on February 25, 2023. This is the second-longest winning streak in men's World Cup Giant Slalom races, after a run of 14 by Ingemar Stenmark from 1978 to 1980.
Since December 7, 2020, in Santa Caterina Odermatt has won 17 Giant Slalom events in the World Cup. Among Swiss men, only von Michael von Grünigen (23) won more men's Giant Slalom World Cup events than Odermatt.
Last season Marco Odermatt secured the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe in Kranjska Gora. Odermatt also picked up the Giant Slalom Crystal Globe in the 2021-2022 season becoming the first Swiss man to do so since Didier Cuche in 2008-2009. The last Swiss man to claim the Giant Slalom globe in successive seasons was Michael von Grünigen in 1995-1996, and 1996-1997.
Odermatt won the World Cup Giant Slalom in Adelboden in 2022 and 2023. Ingemar Stenmark (four times from 1979 to 1982) and Hermann Maier (three from 1998 to 2001) are the only skiers to win more than two successive World Cup Giant Slalom races in Adelboden.
Žan Kranjec finished in third position in both Giant Slalom races held in Alta Badia. It's his 13th podium in the World Cup, all in the Giant Salom.
The last of his two World Cup wins was in the Giant Slalom in Adelboden on January 11, 2020.
Kranjec finished in second place at the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. Kranjec became the second man representing Slovenia to win an Olympic medal in alpine skiing, after Jure Kosir (bronze in the slalom in 1994). Kranjec recorded two World Cup victories, in the Giant Slalom in Saalbach Hinterglemm (2018) and Adelboden (2020).
Kranjec (2) hopes to equal Jure Kosir (3) on most World Cup victories among men representing Slovenia.
Joan Verdu from Andorra surprisingly finished in third position in Val d'Isère. The 28-year-old took his first World Cup podium and achieved the first-ever podium for Andorra.
With four victories in the European Cup Giant Slalom in Glungezer (twice), on the Reiteralm, and in Oppdal, he won the overall ranking in this discipline in 2021-2022 and became the first athlete from Andorra to secure a fixed starting place in all World Cup Giant Slalom events since the 2022-2023 season. Joan Verdú Sánchez made his Alpine Ski World Cup debut in Sölden in 2016.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in second place in the Men's Giant Slalom World Cup standings last season. Kristoffersen finished on the podium of a Giant Slalom event seven times in the 2022-2023 season, but never on the highest step (5 second places and 2 third places).
With 7 wins Kristoffersen surpassed in 2021 Kjetil André Aamodt (6) for most World Cup Giant Slalom wins in total among Norwegian skiers.
Kristoffersen has claimed at least one World Cup win in each of the last ten seasons. He can become the second male skier to claim at least one World Cup victory in as many as 11 consecutive seasons, after Alberto Tomba (1987-1988 to 1997-1998).
Henrik Kristoffersen finished five times on the podium in Adelboden. The Norwegian and Zan Kranjec (five times in Alta Badia) share the record for most podium finishes in World Cup Giant Slalom events at a single venue without ever winning.
Alexis Pinturault has won 18 World Cup Giant Slalom events, ranking him fifth all-time among men. His most recent victory in this event was in Lenzerheide on 20 March 2021. Since then, Pinturault has recorded seven podium finishes in the World Cup (3 second places, 4 third places).
In the last two seasons, Pinturault failed to win a single World Cup event for the first time since 2010-2011. The French skier had claimed at least one World Cup win in 10 successive seasons from 2011-2012 to 2020-2021.
Only Ingemar Stenmark (5) and Marcel Hirscher (4) have won more World Cup Giant Slalom races in Adelboden than Alexis Pinturault (3). The Frenchman recorded one victory in 2017 and two in 2021.
Filip Zubcic returned today to a World Cup podium in Alta Badia, two years after finishing in third position in Val d'Isère in December 2021. It's his 11th career podium.
Zubcic finished on the podium three times in World Cup Giant Slalom in Adelboden, all of them in second place.
Loïc Meillard finished on the Giant Slalom podium in Adelboden two times. He was third on January 9, 2021, and January 7, 2023.
Slalom
Marco Schwarz won the last race of the World Cup before Christmas in Madonna di Campiglio. He celebrated his sixth victory, the third win in Slalom, in the Alpine Ski World Cup. The Austrian will be absent from the Alpine Ski World Cup for the rest of the season after his injury in Bormio.
Clement Noël finished in second place in the Night Slalom in Madonna di Campiglio. The Olympic Champion in Beijing celebrated his 21st World Cup podium in Slalom. The last time the 26-year-old French skier finished on the podium was in Palisades Tahoe on February 26, 2023.
Dave Ryding finished in third place in Madonna di Campiglio. It's his 7th podium in the Alpine Ski World Cup. Ryding became in Italy the second-oldest man to record a World Cup Slalom podium finish, after Giuliano Razzoli's third place in Wengen on January 16, 2022, at 37 years and 29 days.
He finished in fourth place in the Opening Slalom in Gurgl, missing the podium by merely 0.01 seconds. 37-year-old Ryding could become the second skier (male or female) to claim a World Cup victory after turning 37. Didier Cuche claimed four Alpine Ski World Cup wins after his 37th birthday in the 2011-2012 season.
He could become the oldest man to record a World Cup Slalom podium finish.
Manuel Feller won the first Slalom of the 2023-2024 winter season in Gurgl. Feller tops an Austrian podium with Marco Schwarz second (+0.23) and Michael Matt third (+1.05).
In 2023 Manuel Feller finished in fifth place in the Slalom standings.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in second place in the Slalom standings and won the Slalom gold medal at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel-Méribel. Previously the 29-year-old Norwegian had won a bronze medal in 2021 at Cortina d'Ampezzo and at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
Henrik Kristoffersen has won the Slalom Crystal Globe three times (2015-2016, 2019-2020, and 2021-2022). He aims to become the fourth male alpine skier to win the Slalom Title more than three times, after Ingemar Stenmark (8), Marcel Hirscher (6), and Alberto Tomba (4).
The Norwegian was four times on the podium last season, twice in the first position: Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Wengen.
Kristoffersen, with 50 podiums, including 23 wins in this discipline, is in fourth position in the ranking of most podiums in Slalom. Only three other men have won more podium finishes in World Cup Slalom events than Kristoffersen: Ingemar Stenmark (81), Marcel Hirscher (65), and Alberto Tomba (57).
Kristoffersen can become this season the second male skier to achieve at least one World Cup victory in 11 consecutive seasons after Alberto Tomba did so from 1987-1988 to 1997-1998.
Kristoffersen is one of two skiers to win the Slalom in Adelboden more than once. Marcel Hirscher won in the Adelboden World Cup Hill "Chuenisbärgli" five times. The Norwegian wins came in 2016 and 2017.
Ramon Zenhäusern finished in third place in the Slalom standings. He won the last race of the 2022-2023 winter season in Soldeu, Andorra. It's his third podium and second win of last season. After more than two years, he has won the Slalom event at the "Verte des Houches" piste in Chamonix. He won two Slalom World Cup events in a single season for the first time.
Daniel Yule was fourth in the Slalom standings. He won the World Cup Slalom races in Madonna di Campiglio and Kitzbühel last season and finished third in Chamonix.
The 30-year-old Swiss skier can equal his best season 2019-2020 when he became the only Swiss man so far to win three Men's Slalom World Cup events in a single campaign.
Two-time Junior World Champion Alexander Steen Olsen won a thrilling Slalom at Palisades Tahoe last season. But the 22-year-old Norwegian had to endure a long wait to celebrate his first career World Cup victory. Only after minutes of deliberation and the subsequent disqualification of the AJ Ginnis, -the officials determined the Greek skier straddled a gate-, the Norwegian was the winner.
AJ Ginnis finished second in the Men's slalom World Cup event in Chamonix on February 4th. He can become the first Greek winner of a World Cup event in any Olympic winter sport. The most recent countries to win their first World Cup event in Alpine Skiing both achieved this in the men's slalom event: Kalle Palander for Finland (Kitzbühel, January 2003) and Dave Ryding for Great Britain (Kitzbühel, January 2022).
He won the Slalom silver medal at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel-Méribel.
Linus Straßer has not finished on the podium in a World Cup slalom event since a third place in Adelboden in 2023.
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