Since the 2000-2001 season, the Alpine Ski World Cup Opening Races have been held at Soelden in Tirol.
In 2022 (last year the Men's race was canceled due to weather conditions), 70 skiers from all over the world were in Soelden for one of the sport’s most exciting events for ski fans.
After months of waiting, the Giant Slalom in Soelden kicks off the new World Cup for the Men, and the favorites to win the 2024 Giant Slalom on the Rettenbach glacier will be Loic Meillard, Filip Zubcic, Henrik Kristoffersen, Žan Kranjec, and defending champion Marco Odermatt. The return of Lucas Braathen and Marcel Hirscher is set to bring excitement and challenge Swiss dominance in the discipline.
At the FIS Alpine Committee Meetings in September 2024, it was confirmed that the Dutch federation's request for a wild card for Marcel Hirscher, submitted during the summer, is valid and meets the requirements. This means that Hirscher is eligible to participate in the season's first competition in Sölden.
Last season, Marco Odermatt was again the absolute dominator of the Giant Slalom discipline. He is the reigning Olympic Champion, World Champion, and World Cup winner in the Men's Giant Slalom for the third consecutive time.
Odermatt (2021-2022, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024) became the third Swiss male skier to win the Giant Slalom World Cup standings at least three times, after Michael von Grüningen (4) and Pirmin Zurbriggen (3).
The 26-year-old Swiss competed in ten Men's Giant Slalom World Cup events last season and won nine (Val d'Isère, Alta Badia (2), Adelboden, Schladming, Bansko, Palisades Tahoe, and Aspen (2). Only Ingemar Stenmark (10 in 1978-1979) has won more Giant Slalom races in a single season.
With 23 wins Odermatt is joint-fourth in the all-time list for most Men's World Cup Giant Slalom victories, alongside von Michael von Grünigen (23). Ingemar Stenmark (46), Marcel Hirscher (31), and Ted Ligety (24) make up theTop-3. He has won 21 out of 28 races in the last three seasons.
In 2022, after canceling the Women's race on Saturday due to bad weather, the Men's race took place in Sölden under blue skies in front of a vibrant crowd of 14,500 ski fans. And Marco Odermatt started the Giant Slalom World Cup season in Sölden the same way he finished it in Courchevel, winning. After setting the best time in the first run, he laid down a risky second run to claim victory with a combined time of 2:04.72, finishing 0.76 seconds ahead of Zan Kranjec. Henrik Kristoffersen rounded out the contested podium in third position, 0.97 seconds behind Odermatt.
Odermatt also won the 2021 season opener in Sölden after he had finished runner-up in the same event in 2020. Ted Ligety was the last man to win the opening Giant Slalom event in successive World Cup seasons, he achieved this in four consecutive seasons from 2010-2011 to 2013-2014 (1 in Beaver Creek, 3 in Sölden).
Last season, after finishing runner-up to Marco Odermatt in both World Cup Giant Slalom races in Aspen, Loic Meillard broke the winning streak of his teammate, who could not finish the second run in Saalbach. Meillard continued his superb late-season form to hand Odermatt his first Giant Slalom defeat after finishing runner-up to Marco Schwarz, by only 0.03 seconds in Palisades Tahoe on February 25, 2023.
Joan Verdu of Andorra finished in second place 0.71 seconds behind Meillard. Thomas Tumler rounded up the unexpected podium 0.79 seconds off the pace.
It was Meillard's second win in the Giant Slalom. His previous discipline victory was in Schladming on January 25, 2023. It was also his fourth consecutive podium and second win in the World Cup last season. The 27-year-old skier from Valais finished in second place in the Giant Slalom standings.
Last season, Filip Zubcic finished two times on a World Cup podium. He was second in Alta Badia, and third in Adelboden. Adelboden's was his 12th career podium in the World Cup. He has won three World Cup Giant Slalom events: in Niigata Yuzawa Naeba (February 22, 2020), Santa Caterina (December 5, 2020), and Bansko (February 27, 2021).
His best result in Soelden was ninth place in 2021.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in fourth place in the Men's Giant Slalom World Cup standings last season. Kristoffersen finished on the podium of a Giant Slalom event one time in the 2023-2024 season.
He has won 7 races in Giant Salom in the World Cup and finished on the podium 33 times. With 7 wins Kristoffersen surpassed in 2021 Kjetil André Aamodt (6) for most World Cup Giant Slalom wins in total among Norwegian skiers.
Last season, Kristoffersen failed to claim at least one World Cup win something he achieved in the previous ten seasons.
The two Norwegian skiers to have won the Sölden Giant Slalom in the World Cup are Aksel Lund Svindal (2007-2008) and Lucas Braathen (2020-2021).
In 2022 Kristoffersen finished in third place in the Opening Giant Slalom in Sölden. He has raced eight times in Sölden and before his podium in 2022 his best results were 5th place in 2020, sixth in 2015, and 8th in 2016.
Žan Kranjec finished on the podium in the Giant Slalom Opener in Sölden three times: third in 2019, 2021, and second in 2022. In 2016 he finished in 4th position, and was 7th in 2020. He 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.
In 2020, 22-year-old Norwegian sensation Lucas Braathen stole the show in the opening race of the 2020-2021 Audi FIS World Cup in Sölden when he edged out Swiss Marco Odermatt (SUI) by 0.06 seconds to claim his first victory and podium at the World Cup. At just 20 years old, he was also the youngest-ever winner at Sölden.
In his first race in Sölden back in 2019 he finished sixth, in 2021 he was 7th. Lucas Braathen was the second Norwegian skier to have won the Sölden Giant Slalom after Aksel Lund Svindal won in the 2007-2008 season.
Update 10.25.2024: Marcel Hirscher's start in Soelden is now confirmed. His team Van Deer - Red Bull Sports announced this on Instagram on Friday afternoon. The 35-year-old skier will make his comeback in the Alpine Ski World Cup on Sunday in the Giant Slalom in Sölden after 2,051 days.
Comments