After a four-year break, the Men's Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom returns to Levi (Finland) on 17-18 November on the "Levi Black" slope.
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).
Linus Strasser won the Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom races in Kitzbühel and Schladming. The 31-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.
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), Haugan has finished in the top 10 in every slalom World Cup race.
He finished in third position in the Slalom standings.
Loic Meillard took his first Slalom podium in over a year in Chamonix in February, missing out on first place by 0.16 seconds.
Last season Meillard capped a superb weekend in Aspen by winning the Slalom. After finishing in second position in the two Giant Slaloms held in Aspen Meillard achieved in Aspen 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.
Update 11.15.2024: Loïc Meillard confirmed today he will be competing in the first slalom of the World Cup season on Sunday
Clement Noël finished second in Palisades Tahoe. It was his fourth podium finish of the 2023-2024 season and his 24th World Cup podium in Slalom. Reigning Olympic slalom champion Clément Noël has 10 World Cup Slalom victories to his name but will be looking for his first win since his victory in Schladming on 24 January 2023.
Henrik Kristoffersen achieved his third podium of the 2023-2024 season in Aspen, his second in Slalom. Kristoffersen, with 52 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. Previously the 30-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).
Kristoffersen has had excellent results in Levi, winning in 2014 and 2019, and finishing second twice (2017, 2018) and third once (2013).
Ski Superstar Marcel Hirscher is making a sensational comeback to the Alpine Ski World Cup. The 35-year-old is returning to the ski competition for the Netherlands.
In 2019 Marcel Hirscher made Alpine Skiing history by winning the Overall globe for the eighth time in a row. No one ever achieved this feat. During the 2018-2019 winter season Marcel Hirscher collected his sixth career Slalom and Giant Slalom globes. It capped off a career-best season for the Austrian technical ace with one World Championship title, two discipline globes, and his eighth consecutive Overall title.
Marcel Hirscher equaled Lindsey Vonn on a record 20 World Cup classification wins by winning the Slalom, Giant Slalom, and Overall Crystal Globe in 2019.
2,070 days after his last race in Levi, Hirscher returns to the “Levi Black” track, a slope on which he holds a record of three victories (2013, 2016, and 2018). In total, Hirscher has claimed 32 World Cup slalom victories, the last in January 2019 in Schladming.
Update: Marcel Hirscher confirmed today, Wednesday 13th, that he will compete in the World Cup slalom in Levi on Sunday
Lucas Pinheiro 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.
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.
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