Val d'Isere is the third Alpine Ski World Cup Val d'Isere World Cup Giant Slalom of the 2024-2025 season after the races in Sölden and Beaver Creek.
The Men's Giant Slalom event at the Critérium de la Première Neige is scheduled for December 14 at La Face de Bellevarde in Val d’Isère, one of the most iconic and challenging racecourses on the Alpine Ski World Cup Tour.
Val d'Isere (FRA)
December 14th Giant Slalom 9:30 CET 1st run 13:00 CET 2nd run
Norway swept the podium at the season-opening Giant Slalom in Sölden. Alexander Steen Olsen took the lead, Henrik Kristoffersen second, and Atle Lie McGrath third. This marked the first Norwegian 1-2-3 podium since the Super-G podium in Val Gardena in 2015, with Aksel Lund Svindal, Kjetil Jansrund, and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
The second Giant Slalom of the season at Birds of Prey ends with a big surprise. Thomas Tumler secures his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory by winning the Giant Slalom at Beaver Creek. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen was second. Zan Kranjec completed the podium in third place.
Marco Odermatt, the big favorite and defending World Cup Champion, did not finish the second run in Sölden and Beaver Creek, missing out on valuable points.
Odermatt has not finished any of the last three Giant Slalom races he has started (Saalbach, Sölden, and Beaver Creek). Before Saalbach, the last time the Swiss DNF a Giant Slalom race was in Beaver Creek in December 2019. Until Saalbach Odermatt finished on the podium in all of his previous 26 World Cup starts in the Giant Slalom, including 21 victories.
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. In 2024-2025 he is chasing a fourth successive Giant Slalom Crystal Globe and a fourth successive Overall season title.
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 30 races in the last three seasons.
Odermatt has won the Giant Slalom at Val d’Isere for the past three seasons (2021,2022, and 2023). Only Marcel Hirscher, who won the race in 2012, 2013 and 2014, had previously achieved a hat trick in Val d'Isere.
Last season Marco Odermatt won the first race of the season in Val d'Isère proving he was in a league of his own. On an extremely demanding slope, and despite making a few mistakes, he finished clearly ahead of Marco Schwarz (+0.98) and Joan Verdu (+1.32 seconds).
After two races, Lucas Pinheiro Braathen is leading the Giant Slalom standings with 130 points. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history by finishing second in Beaver Creek. He gave Brazil its first podium finish in a World Cup race. He has finished on the podium 13 times in the World Cup, but the previous 12 were for Norway.
He finished fourth at his debut race for his new country, Brazil, in the opening Giant Slalom of the season in Sölden.
Alexander Steen Olsen's victory in Sölden marks his second Alpine Ski World Cup win, following his triumph at the Palisades Tahoe Slalom in February 2023. This victory also represents his second podium finish in the Giant Slalom. He finished ninth in Beaver Creek.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished in second place in Sölden and fifth in Beaver Creek. He is currently in third position in the Giant Slalom standings.
The Norwegian has won 8 races in Giant Salom in the World Cup and finished on the podium 34 times. In 2021, Kristoffersen surpassed Kjetil André Aamodt (6) for the most World Cup Giant Slalom wins among Norwegian skiers.
Kristoffersen finished in fourth place in the Men's Giant Slalom World Cup standings last season.
Thomas Tumler secures his first Alpine Ski World Cup victory by winning the Giant Slalom at Beaver Creek. At the age of 35, after a total of 124 World Cup races, Tumler can finally call himself a World Cup winner. Tumler is the second oldest Giant slalom winner in World Cup history after his Swiss compatriot Didier Cuche. Before Beaver Creek, he achieved the last of his three podium finishes in the Giant Slalom at the Alpine Ski World Cup Finals in Saalbach in March 2024, and the first in Beaver Creek in 2018.
Atle Lie McGrath, aged 24, achieved his 4th Giant Slalom podium in the Alpine Ski World Cup in Sölden. He finished fourth in Beaver Creek. The Norwegian claimed his second podium of the season in the Slalom in Gurgl, his 11th podium in the Alpine Ski World Cup, and 7th in the Slalom.
Zan Kranjec finished in third place in Beaver Creek and sixth in Sölden. He has finished on the podium 15 times in the Alpine Ski World Cup, all in the Giant Slalom.
Kranjec 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.
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).
Joan Verdu achieved in Saalbach in the last race of the season his second podium in the World Cup. Previously the 29-year-old skier from Andorra finished in third place in Val d'Isère in December. Verdu recorded his country's first World Cup podium in the French ski resort.
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