Next weekend the Alpine Ski World Cup Tour in North America will begin on the east coast in Vermont with the Giant Slalom and Slalom races at the Killington ski resort.
The Killington Cup Giant Slalom and Slalom will be held November 25-26, 2023. It will be the seventh time Killington has hosted the Alpine Ski World Cup.
The Stifel Killington Cup, is a regular stop on the Women’s Alpine Ski World Cup Calendar since 2016.
November 25th Giant Slalom 1 Run 10:00 LOC / 16 :00 CET - 2 Run 13:00 LOC / 19 :00 CET
November 26th Slalom 1 Run 10:15 LOC / 16 :15 CET - 2 Run 13:00 LOC / 19 :00 CET
Technical Data Superstar Slalom racecourse
Start Altitude: 980 m
Finish Altitude: 780 m
Vertical Drop: 200 m
Last season's Slalom in Killington brought two new winner faces in the World Cup. Swiss Wendy Holdener and Swede Anna Swenn Larsson, surprisingly shared their first Slalom victory in the World Cup. It was the first Women's Slalom joint first place since 2011 in Flachau when Tanja Poutiainen and Maria Riesch shared the first position. Katharina Truppe finished in third place.
In 2021, Mikaela Shiffrin won her 5th Slalom in Killington. The US local hero has won in the Killington Superstar racecourse in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021. Last season she finished in fifth position.
Born in Vail, Colorado, Shiffrin considers also Killington as her hometown as she is a former student of the nearby Burke Mountain Academy.
Mikaela Shiffrin won the last Slalom event of this World Cup season in Levi. Shiffrin celebrated her 89th World Cup victory. She recorded 54 of her 89 wins in the Slalom, a record for most wins in a single event. Ingemar Stenmark follows with 46 wins in the Men's Giant Slalom, and Lindsey Vonn with 43 wins in the Women's Downhill.
Thanks to her victory in Levi, Shiffrin with 139 podiums overtook Marcel Hirscher (138) in second place all-time for most Alpine Ski World Cup podiums. Ingemar Stenmark with 155 holds the record.
Last season Shiffrin won the Slalom title. In total, Shiffrin finished the 2022-2023 winter season with a total of 15 Crystal Globes (5 total, 7 in Slalom, 2 in Giant Slalom and one in Super-G). In 2023-2024, Shiffrin can equal Ingemar Stenmark (8) for most Slalom Crystal Globes.
Besides Shiffrin, Lindsey Vonn (8 in Downhill) and Annemarie Moser-Pröll (7 in Downhill) are the only other women to have won a World Cup title in one discipline at least seven times.
Since 2018-2019, Shiffrin has recorded just one DNF in 44 Slalom World Cup starts: in Kranjska Gora on January 9, 2022.
Petra Vlhová finished third in the Slalom standings. She recorded podium finishes in the Slalom standings in each of the past five seasons, claiming two Crystal Globes: 2nd-1st-3rd-1st-3rd.
Vlhová won the first Slalom of the season held in Levi. It's her 20th victory and her 42nd podium in Slalom. The 28-year-old skier joined the group of five other women with at least 20 Slalom World Cup wins: Mikaela Shiffrin (53), Marlies Schild (35), Vreni Schneider (34), Erika Hess (21), and Janica Kostelic (20).
Petra Vlhová is the reigning Olympic Champion in Slalom.
She finished second behind Shiffrin in the 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021 Slalom World Cups in Killington. Last season she finished in fourth position.
Lena Dürr finished second and third respectively in the two Slaloms held in Levi. It was her tenth podium in the World Cup, her sixth one in Slalom. The 32-year-old German skier achieved her first Slalom World Cup victory last season in Špindlerův Mlýn on January 29, 2023.
Dürr won the bronze medal in the Slalom at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships in Méribel. The German skier finished fourth in the discipline standings last season. In 2021-2022 she finished in third position, her first time in the Top-3.
In 2021 she finished in 5th place in the Slalom, her best result in Killington.
Katharina Liensberger returned in Levi to a World Cup Podium. The 26-year-old from Vorarlberg surprised the audience with two consistent runs. The last time she finished in the Top-3 was in March 2022, when she won the Slalom in Åre.
The winner of the 2021 Slalom Crystal Globe and World Champion in Cortina, faced a highly challenging 2022-2023 season, finishing in the Slalom Top-10 just twice.
In 2021 she finished in 4th place in the Slalom, her best result in Killington.
Leona Popovic finished second on Sunday's Slalom in Levi. It was her second Alpine Ski World Cup podium.
Last season, Zrinka Ljutic (3rd in Špindlerův Mlýn) and Leona Popovic (2nd in Soldeu) recorded the first Slalom podiums for Croatia in the Women's World Cup since Ana Jelusic in 2007.
Janica Kostelic (30), Ivica Kostelic (26) and Filip Zubcic (3) are the only three Croatian skiers to have won a race in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Last season Popovic finished fifth and Ljutic 15th in Killington.
Wendy Holdener finished second in the Slalom standings last season. She has finished second in the discipline ranks once before, in 2017-2018. Since then she finished 3rd-4th-5th-5th in the Slalom standings.
Holdener (2) was the only alpine skier other than Mikaela Shiffrin to claim multiple women's World Cup slalom victories last season. Before her wins in Killington and Sestriere in the 2022-2023 season Holdener had achieved 30 World Cup podiums in the Slalom without ever standing on the top step (G0-S15-B15).
Wendy Holdener finished two times in third place in the Killington slalom (2016, and 2021).
Anna Swenn-Larsson finished fifth in the Slalom standings last season. Her best Slalom standings finish was a fourth place in 2018-2019.
Swenn-Larsson shared the first place with Holdener at the Slalom event held in Killington last season. At the age of 31, the Swede became the oldest debut winner in a World Cup event.
Anna Swenn-Larsson had achieved eight Slalom podiums in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
Until last season, her best result in Killington was a third place back in 2019.
Laurence St-Germain became World Champion in the Slalom at the 47th Alpine World Ski Championships in Meribel on February 18. She left the US favorite Mikaela Shiffrin behind by 0.57 seconds. Bronze went to German Lena Duerr (+0.69). For the second time a Canadian won the world title in Slalom. Anne Heggtveit achieved this feat in 1960 in Squaw Valley.
St-Germain's best result in a World Cup Slalom event is a fifth place in Åre on March 11, three weeks after becoming a world champion.
Her best result at Killington was 13th in 2021.
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