From Saturday to Thursday, the World Cup finals in alpine skiing will take place in Sun Valley. The final decisions in the battle for the crystal globes will be made in the state of Idaho.
21.03.2025, 04:01
21.03.2025, 07:12
SDA
Unlike in the men's event, where Marco Odermatt has once again secured the big crystal globe for winning the overall World Cup and the discipline victories in the super-G and giant slalom, there is still a lot to play for in the women's event. The most exciting starting positions from a Swiss perspective are in the super-G and slalom.
Rast and Gut-Behrami in the lead
Camille Rast goes into the final slalom of the season next Thursday 41 points behind Zrinka Ljutic. A 3rd place will be enough for the 21-year-old Croatian to secure the small crystal globe for the best female slalom skier of the season for the first time. For Rast, winning the discipline World Cup would be the crowning glory of an already brilliant season with her first World Cup victories and the World Championship title in Saalbach. With the Austrian Katharina Liensberger, a third racer is involved in the bullet fight. The Vorarlberg native is 51 points behind Ljutic. With a deficit of 96 points, Wendy Holdener only has a theoretical chance.
Lara Gut-Behrami must make up five points on the recently unleashed Italian Federica Brignone on Sunday in order to take the super-G crown for the sixth time.
Brignone, for her part, already has a 382-point lead over last year's winner Gut-Behrami to secure the big globe. She is also in the running for the globe in the giant slalom and downhill. In the supreme discipline, she has to hold her own against last year's Austrian winner Cornelia Hütter (16 points behind) and her compatriot Sofia Goggia (34), while in the giant slalom she has to make up 20 points on New Zealand's Alice Robinson.
Meillard against Kristoffersen
There are only two questions left in the men's race, one of which is already as good as answered: Marco Odermatt should finish the season as the best downhill skier for the second time in a row with an 83-point lead. His team-mate Franjo von Allmen would have to win the last race of the season and Odermatt is unlikely to finish higher than 15th. The last time the man from Nidwalden finished this far back was two years ago at the season finale in Soldeu.
The starting position in the slalom is more exciting, with Henrik Kristoffersen starting the final race of the season from pole position. The Norwegian has a 47-point lead over Loïc Meillard and is aiming for his fourth discipline victory after 2016, 2020 and 2022. It would be the second crystal globe for World Champion Meillard. Five years ago, he won the trophy for victory in the parallel classification. Clément Noël, 86 points behind, should have nothing to do with Manuel Feller's succession.
