The first Slalom of the 2025 Alpine Ski World Cup will take place next Sunday at the Podkoren racecourse in Kranjska Gora. This is the fifth race of the Women’s Slalom season.
Petra Vlhova is the Slalom Queen of Kranjska Gora. She has won the last three Slalom races held in the Slovenian ski resort in 2020, 2022, and 2024.
In 2024, Petra Vlhova won her third Slalom race of the season in Kranjska Gora. Lena Dürr finished in second place +0.72 seconds behind Vlhova. A.J. Hurt completed the podium +0.87 seconds behind the Slovakian skier. It was Vlhova's 31 World Cup victory.
Only Lena Dürr (second in 2024), Wendy Holdener (second in 2020 and 2022, and third in 2018), Katharina Truppe (third in 2020), Anna Swenn-Larsson (third in 2022), and A.J. Hurt (third in 2024) among the skiers present in Kranjska Gora have managed to get on the podium in the Slovenian ski resort.
Mikaela Shiffrin won the first two Slaloms in Levi and Gurgl. The American claimed her 99th Alpine Ski World Cup victory, 62nd in Slalom, at the Women’s premiere in Gurgl. Shiffrin was accompanied on the podium by two new faces, Lara Colturi and Camille Rast, second and third respectively.
Killington brought a new face to the Alpine Ski World Cup winner's circle: Camille Rast. The 25-year-old Swiss confirmed her fantastic start to the season in the third Slalom. She claimed her first win after World Cup podiums in the Slalom in Gurgl and Killington's Giant Slalom.
Wendy Holdener and Anna Swenn Larsson surprisingly shared second place at the same place where they celebrated their first World Cup Slalom victory together in 2003.
Zrinka Ljutic won the last Alpine Ski World Cup race of 2024, the Slalom in Semmering, in dominant fashion after setting the fastest time in both runs. The last Croatian to win a World Cup race was Janica Kostelic in Are in 2006.
Lena Duerr finished second, 1.75 seconds behind the Croatian. Katharina Liensberger completed the podium in third place, 1.85 seconds back.
Ljutic showed that she will be a real challenge for slalom aces Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova when they return from their respective injuries.
Kranjska Gora (SLO)
January 5th Slalom / Women 10:00 CET 1st run 13:00 CET 2nd run
With Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova sidelined, the fight to lead the Slalom standings is fierce.
Camille Rast leads the Slalom standings with 255 points after four of 11 scheduled races. She also leads the Overall standings. With a fifth-place finish at the Slalom opener in Levi, a third place in Gurgl, her maiden win in Slalom in Killington, and a fourth place in Semmering, the 25-year-old Rast has confirmed her status as one of the women to watch this season.
The last Swiss skier to win the Slalom in Kranjska Gora was Erika Hess in 1983.
Lena Dürr is currently second in the Slalom standings with 235 points.
With a third place in the first slalom of the winter, on her favorite slope, Lena Dürr had a perfect start to the season. In Gurgl she finished fifth. In Killington she was fourth. In Semmering, the most consistent slalom skier in recent years after Mikaela Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova was only beaten by Ljutic. It was her 14th World Cup slalom podium.
Dürr finished second in the 2024 Slalom standings. Last season she enjoyed the best season of his career, with four podiums in her first six races (second and third in Levi, second in Lienz, and second again in Kranjska Gora).
In Kranjska Gora, she will be aiming for her second Slalom World Cup victory after her win in Špindleruv Mlýn on 29 January 2023.
Lena Dürr could become the oldest skier to win a World Cup Slalom. Currently, the record is held by Anna Swenn Larsson, who won in Soldeu at the age of 32 years, 7 months, and 23 days. Only two other women have won a World Cup slalom event after their 32nd birthday: Marlies Schild (two victories at age 32) and Veronika Velez-Zuzulová (one victory at age 32).
Zrinka Ljutic is third in the Slalom standings with 209 points.
She finished sixth in the first Slalom in Levi. In Gurgl, she struggled on the icy slope in the first run and finished 24th, but posted the fastest time in the second run to move up to 9th. In Killington, she finished sixth. Then in Semmering, the 20-year-old outclassed the competition to win her first Alpine World Cup race. Ljutic became the youngest woman to win a World Cup slalom since Shiffrin, then 20, won in Jasná in March 2016.
Last season, the Croatian talent finished runner-up in three of the last four Women's World Cup Slalom events in Jasná, Soldeu, and Åre. In Saalbach, she did not finish the second run after setting the third-best time in the first run. Ljutic became the first woman to finish second in three consecutive World Cup Slaloms since Mikaela Shiffrin had a run of four second-place finishes from March to November 2020.
Katharina Liensberger is fourth in the Slalom standings with 205 points. Liensberger finished in second place in the Slalom opener in Levi. In Gurgl, she posted the third-best time in the first run but made a few mistakes in the second run and dropped to seventh place. In Killington she finished in ninth place. Liensberger made it onto the Slalom podium in Semmering for the second time this season. The 27-year-old Austrian finished third thanks to a superb second run which saw her move up from seventh place in the first run.
Liensberger has won three World Cup Slalom races and finished on the podium 16 times. The four Austrian women to have claimed more than three World Cup Slalom victories are Marlies Schild (35), Roswitha Steiner (8), Gertrud Gabl (5), and Nicole Hosp (5). In the absence of Petra Vlhova, Katharina Liensberger is the only woman other than Shiffrin to have won more than two World Cup slalom races in her career.
Katharina Liensberger won the Slalom Crystal Globe in 2021.
Liensberger took silver in the Slalom behind gold medallist Petra Vlhova at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.
In Cortina 2020, Liensberger posted the fastest times in both slalom runs, finishing well ahead of Petra Vhlova and Mikaela Shiffrin to take the gold medal. She was the first Austrian woman to reach the world championship podium in the Slalom since Michaela Kirchgasser (silver) in 2013. The last Austrian to win the Women's slalom world title was Marlies Schild in 2011.
Mikaela Shiffrin is currently in fifth place in the Slalom standings with 200 points. In Gurgl, in her last Slalom before her injury, Shiffrin confirmed her status as the undisputed slalom favorite with a dominant victory and her 99th World Cup victory. Of her impressive 99 wins, 62 have come in Slalom.
Mikaela Shiffrin has won 8 Slalom Crystal Globes (2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019, 2022-2023, and 2023-2024), tying her with Lindsey Vonn (Downhill) and Ingemar Stenmark (Slalom and Giant Slalom), who also hold eight discipline globes.
Wendy Holdener is sixth in the Slalom standings with 185 points. She made her Slalom comeback in Levi. She finished 16th. In Gurgl, the 31-year-old Swiss finished fourth, just 0.18 seconds off the podium. She claimed her first podium of the season in Killington, sharing second place with Anna Swenn Larsson.
She is sixth on the all-time World Cup slalom podium alongside Perrine Pelen (36). Holdener is also tied with Frida Hansdotter for the most times (17) she has been runner-up in World Cup Slaloms.
Anna Swenn Larsson is currently in seventh place in the Slalom standings with 146 points. She has won two Slalom races in the World Cup. Swenn-Larsson shared first place with Wendy Holdener at Killington on 27 November 2022. In Soldeu in February, she claimed her second World Cup victory. The Swede has 13 Slalom World Cup podiums to her name.
Swenn-Larsson was the silver medallist behind Mikaela Shiffrin in the Slalom at the 2019 World Championships in Åre.
In the Slalom held in Kranjska Gora in 2022, she finished on the podium in third place.
Lara Colturi finished second in Gurgl, just 0.55 seconds behind Shiffrin. The 18-year-old Albanian skier, who worked her way up from 4th to 2nd place, secured her first podium finish in the World Cup. Before Gurgl, the best World Cup result for Lara Colturi, daughter of Olympic champion Daniela Ceccarelli, was ninth place in the Night Slalom in Flachau last season. She is the first skier from Albania to climb onto the World Cup podium.
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