Competition in the Men's Slalom Alpine Ski World Cup is fierce, making it difficult to pick a clear favorite to win the race in Gurgl. Since the start of the 2021-2022 winter season, 15 skiers -Manuell Feller (4), Henrik Kristoffersen (4), Linus Strasser (3), Clément Noël (3), Daniel Yule (3), Lucas Braathen (3), Atle Lie McGrath (2), Ramon Zenhäusern (2), Sebastian Foss-Solevåg, Johannes Strolz, Dave Ryding, Alexander Steen Olsen, Marco Schwarz, Loic Meillard, and Timon Haugan,- have won at least one Alpine Ski World Cup event.
Last season the Austrian men broke a 17-race winless streak by finishing first, second, and third in Gurgl, with Manuel Feller winning ahead of teammates Marco Schwarz and Michael Matt.
In the 2021-2022 winter season, there have been eight different winners in 10 Slalom races: Clément Noël (Val d'Isère), Sebastian Foss-Solevåg (Madonna di Campiglio), Johannes Strolz (Adelboden), Lucas Braathen (Wengen), Dave Ryding (Kitzbühel), Linus Strasser (Schladming), Henrik Kristoffersen (Garmisch Partenkirchen 1 and 2), and Atle Lie McGrath (Flachau, and Courchevel). Only in 1985-1986 (9) and 1999-2000 (9) were more Men's Slalom winners in the World Cup.
In the 2022-2023 winter season, 10 Slalom races were held in the Alpine Ski World Cup. Ramon Zenhäusern (Chamonix, and Soldeu), Lucas Braathen (Val d'Isère, and Adelboden), Henrik Kristoffersen (Garmisch Partenkirchen, and Wengen), and Daniel Yule (Madonna di Campiglio, and Kitzbühel) won two each. Clement Noel (Schladming), and Norwegian Alexander Steen Olsen (Palisades Tahoe) won the remaining two.
In the 2023-2024 winter season, 10 Slalom races were held in the Alpine Ski World Cup. Manuell Feller (Gurgl, Adelboden, Wengen, and Palisades Tahoe), Linus Strasser (Kitzbühel and Schladming), Marco Schwarz (Madonna di Campiglio), Daniel Yule (Chamonix), Loic Meillard (Aspen), and Timon Haugan (Saalbach) were the winners.
Reigning Olympic Slalom Champion Clement Noël won the Slalom Opener in Levi. Noël has 11 World Cup Slalom victories and 25 podiums to his name but he was looking for his first win since his victory in Schladming on 24 January 2023.
He achieved his first World Cup podium in the Slalom at Adelboden on 13 January 2019. A week later, he secured his first Slalom victory in Wengen.
Noel’s last season-opening Slalom victory was in Val d'Isère in 2021, and he went on to have his best World Cup season that year, finishing second in the Slalom standings and claiming the Olympic Slalom Gold medal in Beijing.
Among skiers representing France (including women), only Perrine Pelen (15), and Jean Noël Augert (13) have claimed more World Cup victories in the slalom than Noël.
He finished second in the slalom standings in 2019, 2020 (finishing just two points behind Henrik Kristoffersen) and 2021.
At the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Noel became the third French Olympic Slalom champion, after Jean-Claude Killy in 1968 and Jean-Pierre Vidal in 2002.
Noël, aged 20 and participating in his first Winter Olympics at Pyeongchang 2018, finished fourth in the Slalom.
Manuel Feller is the defending World Cup Champion in the Men's Slalom. Feller's second place in the Saalbach Finals capped off a dominant season for the Austrian skier. He was Mr. Consistency finishing inside the Top-5 in all ten Men's World Cup Slalom events last season, including four victories in Gurgl, Adelboden, Wengen, and Palisades Tahoe. He was the first man to win four World Cup Slalom events in a single season since Marcel Hirscher won five times in 2018-2019.
Aged 31 Manuel Feller became the oldest Men's Slalom Crystal Globe winner since Reinfried Herbst (2009-2010) and Ivica Kostelic (2010-2011) won at the same age. It’s Feller’s biggest career achievement after winning the silver medal in Slalom at the 2017 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Before 2024 the closest he came to winning a World Cup Crystal Globe was in 2021-2022 when he finished runner-up in the Slalom standings 90 points behind Henrik Kristoffersen.
Austria has won the Slalom World Cup Crystal Globe 17 times. The last time Austria won the Men’s Slalom World Cup standings was in the 2020-2021 winter season when Marco Schwarz clinched the World Cup Slalom title. Feller etches his name in the record book alongside other Slalom title victors from his country: Marcel Hirscher (6), Benjamin Raich (2), Thomas Sykora (2), Reinfried Herbst (1), Rainer Schoenfelder (1), Thomas Stangassinger (1) and Alfred Matt (1).
After finishing 15th in the first run, Manuel Feller failed to finish the second run in Levi.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in second place in Levi, repeating his position from the Giant Slalom season opener in Sölden. The Norwegian jumped from eleventh place to second place with the fastest time in the second run.
Kristoffersen, with 53 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).
He won the Slalom gold medal at the 2023 Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel-Méribel. The 30-year-old Norwegian previously won bronze medals in Slalom in Cortina d'Ampezzo 2021 and in Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
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 Team won five of the ten Men's Slalom World Cup events in 2022-2023, but only one of the ten Slalom events last season.
Loic Meillard completed the podium in Levi in third place. Having to retire from the race in Sölden due to a disc injury, Meillard managed to claim a place on the podium, his 22nd in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
In 2024, Meillard took his first Slalom podium in over a year in Chamonix in February, missing out on first place by 0.16 seconds.
In March Meillard capped a superb weekend in Aspen by winning the Slalom. After finishing in second position in the two Giant Slaloms held in the Colorado ski resort, Meillard achieved his first win of the season (he added another victory to his record in Saalbach in the Giant Slalom). He was his maiden win in the Slalom discipline in the World Cup. His two previous wins were in the Giant Slalom and the Parallel.
Like in Sölden, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who now competes for Brazil, came 4th with starting number 33. The 24-year-old finished 1.05 seconds behind the winner.
Braathen won the 2022-2023 Slalom Crystal Globe. The Norwegian won the slalom races in Adelboden and Val d'Isere and finished on the podium in six of the ten men's World Cup Slalom races of the season.
Lucas Braathen was the third Norwegian to win the Men's Slalom Crystal Globe, after Henrik Kristoffersen (3, 2015-2016, 2019-2020, and 2021-2022), and Kjetil André Aamodt (1, 1999-2000).
Braathen has three wins and five podiums in 30 World Cup Slalom races, but the 24-year-old has never raced a World Cup slalom in Levi.
Braathen is on the verge of reaching a historic milestone and becoming the first Brazilian athlete to reach a podium in the Alpine Ski World Cup.
In 2024, Linus Strasser won the Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom races in Kitzbühel and Schladming. The 32-year-old German skier became the first to achieve the Kitzbühel and Schladming double. Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen was the last one to do so in 2016. Before Strasser, the previous German skier to record back-to-back Slalom World Cup wins was Armin Bittner, in January 1990. Only two German skiers Armin Bittner (4 in 1989-1990) and Felix Neureuther (3 in 2013-2014) have won more than two Men's World Cup Slalom events in a single season.
He has won four times in Slalom in the World Cup. Straßer has won as many World Cup Slalom races in 2024 (2) as in his previous years in the World Cup combined (2021 in Zagreb, and 2022 in Schladming. He also won a City Event in Stockholm in 2017). He is fourth-most among German skiers in Slalom wins behind Felix Neureuther (11), Armin Bittner (7), and Christian Neureuther (6).
In Saalbach, he finished on the podium for the fifth time in the last six slalom races to round off an impressive season.
Strasser finished in 7th position in the Slalom Opener held in Levi.
Timon Haugan won the last Slalom race of the season in Saalbach, achieving his first World Cup victory. With his victory, he confirmed he is one of the most consistent Slalom racers in the World Cup. Except for Kitzbuehel (DNF2), and the season opener in Levi (he finished in 14th position) Haugan has finished in the Top-10 in every slalom World Cup race since Palisades Tahoe in 2023.
He finished in third position in the Slalom standings.
Marcel Hirscher's return to the Slalom competition in Levi did not go as expected. The eight-time Overall World Cup champion failed to qualify for the second run, finishing 2.59 seconds behind the first-run leader, Clement Noel.
Swiss skier Tanguy Nef achieved his best-ever World Cup result in Levi, finishing fifth. His previous best result was two sixth places in Adelboden in 2021, and Madonna di Campiglio in 2020. Nef's only European Cup victory came in Levi in March 2023.
The 26-year-old French skier Steven Amiez, who was in third place after the first run, ultimately finished in sixth position at Levi. He narrowly missed the chance to add another podium finish to the Amiez family legacy. His father, Sébastien Amiez, had an impressive career, achieving ten podium finishes and one win in Slalom World Cup events between 1995 and 2001.
Dave Ryding can become the oldest skier to finish on the podium in a World Cup slalom, surpassing Giuliano Razzoli's third place at the age of 37 years and 29 days in Wengen on 16 January 2022.
21-year-old Eduard Hallberg, in his first Alpine World Cup Slalom appearance, became the first Finn since Santteri Paloniemi to score slalom World Cup points, matching his 24th place in the 2012 Levi World Cup.
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