Val d'Isere is the third Alpine Ski World Cup Val d'Isere World Cup Slalom of the 2024-2025 season after the races in Levi and Gurgl.
The Men's Slalom event at the Critérium de la Première Neige is scheduled for December 15 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 15th Slalom 10:00 CET 1st run 13:00 CET 2nd run
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), Clément Noël (4), Linus Strasser (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.
Reigning Olympic Slalom Champion Clement Noël leads the Men's Slalom standings after winning the first two Alpine Ski World Cup Slalom races of the season in Levi, and Gurgl.
Noël has 12 World Cup Slalom victories and 26 podiums to his name. 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. He did not finish the first run in Gurgl.
In 2022, he finished second in the slalom in Val d'Isere.
Henrik Kristoffersen finished second in Levi and sixth in Gurgl.
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.
Kristoffersen is a two-time winner of the Val d'Isere Slalom in 2015 and 2016. He finished second at the 2017 event.
Loic Meillard completed the podium in Levi in third place. Having to retire from the race in Sölden due to a disc injury, Meillard claimed a place on the podium, his 22nd in the Alpine Ski World Cup. In Gurgl he finished in fifth place.
In February 2024, Meillard took his first Slalom podium in over a year in Chamonix, 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.
In 2022, he finished third in the Slalom in Val d'Isere.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, with starting number 33, finished in fourth position in Levi, but he did not finish the second run in Gurgl. The 24-year-old 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.
In Beaver Creek Lucas Pinheiro Braathen made history by finishing second in the Giant Slalom. 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.
Atle Lie McGrath claimed in Gurgl his second podium of the season, following his third place at the season opener in Sölden. It's his 11th podium in the Alpine Ski World Cup and 7th in the Slalom.
Kristoffer Jakobsen jumped from eighth to second place with a fast second run in Gurgl and achieved his fourth World Cup Podium. Achieved a career-best result by finishing second for the third time. He achieved a career-best result by finishing second for the third time.
The 26-year-old French skier Steven Amiez, who was in third place after the first run in Gurgl, ultimately finished in fourth position and 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. In Levi, he was also in third position after the first run but finished in sixth place.
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. He did not qualify for the second run in Gurgl.
Timon Haugan won the last Slalom race of the 2023-2024 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.
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.
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.
Marco Schwarz is set to make his comeback in Val d'Isère after recovering from his injury. He tore his cruciate ligament in the Downhill in Bormio in December 2023. After rehab, he suffered another setback in August when he suffered from disc problems and eventually had to undergo surgery. On Sunday, 354 days after his cruciate ligament injury, his ordeal will finally come to an end.
The 29-year-old Austrian skier finished in second place behind Odermatt in the Giant Slalom at La Face de Bellevarde in Val d’Isère last season.
Comments