The FIS Alpine Ski World Cup is the top international circuit of alpine skiing competitions, launched in 1966 by a group of ski racing friends and experts which included French journalist Serge Lang and the alpine ski team directors from France (Honore Bonnet) and the USA (Bob Beattie).[1] It was soon backed by International Ski Federation president Marc Hodler during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships 1966 at Portillo, Chile, and became an official FIS event in the spring of 1967 after the FIS Congress at Beirut, Lebanon. The first World Cup ski race was held in Berchtesgaden, West Germany, on January 5, 1967. Jean-Claude Killy of France and Nancy Greene of Canada were the overall winners for the first two seasons.
| Alpine Ski World Cup | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Alpine skiing |
| Location(s) |
Europe Canada United States Japan (rarely) Russia (rarely) Australia (rarely) Argentina (rarely) South Korea (rarely) New Zealand (rarely) |
| Inaugurated |
5 January 1967 (men) 7 January 1967 (ladies) |
| Founder |
 Serge Lang Honore Bonnet Bob Beattie |
| Previous event | 2017–18 season |
| Organised by | International Ski Federation |
| People |
 Markus Waldner (men) Atle Skårdal (ladies) |
| Sponsor | Audi Quattro |
Contents
RulesEdit
Competitors attempt to achieve the best time in four disciplines: slalom, giant slalom, super G, and downhill. The fifth event, the combined, employs the downhill and slalom. The World Cup originally included only slalom, giant slalom, and downhill races. Combined events (calculated using results from selected downhill and slalom races) were included starting with the 1974–75 season, while the Super G was added for the 1982–83 season. The current scoring system was implemented in the 1991–92 season. For every race points are awarded to the top 30 finishers: 100 points to the winner, 80 for second, 60 for third, winding down to 1 point for 30th place. The racer with the most points at the end of the season in mid-March wins the Cup, with the trophy consisting of a 9 kilogram crystal globe.[2] Sub-prizes are also awarded in each individual race discipline, with a smaller 3.5 kg crystal globe. (See the section on scoring system below for more information.)
The World Cup is held annually, and is considered the premier competition for alpine ski racing after the quadrennial Winter Olympics. Many consider the World Cup to be a more valuable title than the Olympics or the biennial World Championships, since it requires a competitor to ski at an extremely high level in several disciplines throughout the season, and not just in one race.[3]
Races are hosted primarily at ski resorts in the Alps in Europe, with regular stops in Scandinavia, North America, and east Asia, but a few races have also been held in the Southern Hemisphere. World Cup competitions have been hosted in 25 different countries around the world: Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.[4] (Note that all World Cup races hosted in Bosnia were held when it was still part of Yugoslavia.)
Lower competitive circuits include the NorAm Cup in North America and the Europa Cup in Europe.
Overall winnersEdit
Multiple individual overall World Cup winners are marked with (#).
IndividualEdit
Individual titles by countryEdit
| Nation | Total | Men | Ladies | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Austria |
33 | 16 | 17 | ||
 Switzerland |
19 | 7 | 12 | ||
| United States |
12 | 5 | 7 | ||
 Sweden |
6 | 3 | 3 | ||
| Italy |
6 | 6 | – | ||
| Norway |
5 | 5 | – | ||
 Luxembourg |
5 | 5 | – | ||
| France |
4 | 3 | 1 | ||
 Croatia |
4 | 1 | 3 | ||
 Liechtenstein |
3 | 1 | 2 | ||
 Germany |
3 | – | 3 | ||
 Canada |
2 | – | 2 | ||
| West Germany |
1 | – | 1 | ||
 Slovenia |
1 | – | 1 |
Men overall titlesEdit
The following skiers have at least three overall alpine World Cup titles.
| Name | Career | Overall | Disciplines | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DH | SG | GS | SL | KB | |||||
| Marcel Hirscher |
2007–active | 7 | – | – | 5 | 5 | – | ||
| Marc Girardelli |
1980–1996 | 5 | 2 | – | 1 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Hermann Maier |
1996–2009 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 3 | – | – | ||
| Pirmin Zurbriggen |
1981–1990 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | – | 3 | ||
| Gustav Thöni |
1969–1980 | 4 | – | N/A | 3 | 2 | – | ||
| Phil Mahre |
1975–1984 | 3 | – | – | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Ingemar Stenmark |
1973–1989 | 3 | – | N/A | 8 | 8 | – | ||
Ladies overall titlesEdit
The following skiers have at least three overall alpine World Cup titles.
| Name | Career | Overall | Disciplines | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DH | SG | GS | SL | KB | |||||
| Annemarie Moser-Pröll |
1969–1980 | 6 | 7 | N/A | 3 | – | 2 | ||
| Lindsey Vonn |
2001–active | 4 | 8 | 5 | – | – | 3 | ||
| Vreni Schneider |
1984–1995 | 3 | – | – | 5 | 6 | – | ||
| Janica Kostelić |
1998–2006 | 3 | – | – | – | 3 | 4 | ||
| Petra Kronberger |
1987–1992 | 3 | – | – | – | 1 | – | ||
Discipline titlesEdit
Top 10 Small Crystal Globe podiumsEdit
| # | Skier | Period | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ingemar Stenmark |
1975–1987 | 16 | 7 | 1 |
| 2 | Pirmin Zurbriggen |
1983–1990 | 12 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Marc Girardelli |
1982–1996 | 10 | 5 | 6 |
| 4 | Hermann Maier |
1998–2006 | 10 | 5 | 3 |
| 5 | Marcel Hirscher |
2012–2018 | 10 | 3 | 1 |
| 6 | Aksel Lund Svindal |
2006–2018 | 9 | 3 | 3 |
| 7 | Alberto Tomba |
1988–1996 | 8 | 5 | 0 |
| 8 | Benjamin Raich |
2001–2010 | 8 | 4 | 5 |
| 9 | Kjetil André Aamodt |
1993–2003 | 8 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | Phil Mahre |
1978–1983 | 7 | 2 | 3 |
Winners per disciplineEdit
Combined crystal globe was officially awarded from 2007–2012. However, there are counted all season titles, both official and unofficial. The records for most World Cup titles in each discipline are as follows:
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SlalomEdit
- Men
In the following table men's slalom World Cup podiums in the World Cup since first season in 1967.[5]
Giant SlalomEdit
- Men
In the following table men's giant slalom World Cup podiums from the World Cup first edition in 1967.[6]
DownhillEdit
- Men
In the following table men's downhill World Cup podiums from the World Cup first edition in 1967.[7]
Super-GEdit
In the following table men's Super-G World Cup podiums since first edition in 1986.
Combined/Super CombinedEdit
In the following table men's combined (from 2007 Super combined) World Cup podiums in the World Cup since first edition in 1976.[8]
Most races wins in each disciplineEdit
MenEdit
As of 17 March 2018
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LadiesEdit
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Most successful race winnersEdit
A common measurement of how good individual skiers are is the total number of World Cup races won during their skiing career. The following skiers have won at least 20 World Cup races:
Men's race winnersEdit
As of 18 March 2018
| Rank | Men | Career | Wins | DH | SG | GS | SL | KB | PSL | PGS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ingemar Stenmark |
1973–1989 | 86 | – | – | 46 | 40 | – | – | N/A | ||
| 2 | Marcel Hirscher |
2007–active | 58 | – | 1 | 28 | 27 | – | 2 | – | ||
| 3 | Hermann Maier |
1996–2009 | 54 | 15 | 24 | 14 | – | 1 | – | N/A | ||
| 4 | Alberto Tomba |
1986–1998 | 50 | – | – | 15 | 35 | – | – | N/A | ||
| 5 | Marc Girardelli |
1980–1996 | 46 | 3 | 9 | 7 | 16 | 11 | – | N/A | ||
| 6 | Pirmin Zurbriggen |
1981–1990 | 40 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 2 | 11 | – | N/A | ||
| 7 | Benjamin Raich |
1996–2015 | 36 | – | 1 | 14 | 14 | 7 | – | N/A | ||
| 8 | Aksel Lund Svindal |
2001–active | 35 | 14 | 16 | 4 | – | 1 | – | – | ||
| 9 | Bode Miller |
1997–2017 | 33 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 6 | – | – | ||
| 10 | Stephan Eberharter |
1989–2004 | 29 | 18 | 6 | 5 | – | – | – | N/A | ||
| 11 | Phil Mahre |
1975–1984 | 27 | – | – | 7 | 9 | 11 | – | N/A | ||
| 12 | Franz Klammer |
1972–1985 | 26 | 25 | – | – | – | 1 | – | N/A | ||
| Ivica Kostelić |
1998–2017 | 26 | – | 1 | – | 15 | 9 | 1 | – | |||
| 14 | Ted Ligety |
2004–active | 25 | – | – | 24 | – | 1 | – | – | ||
| 15 | Gustav Thöni |
1969–1980 | 24 | – | N/A | 11 | 8 | 4 | 1 | N/A | ||
| Peter Müller |
1977–1992 | 24 | 19 | 2 | – | – | 3 | – | N/A | |||
| 17 | Michael von Grünigen |
1989–2003 | 23 | – | 23 | – | – | – | N/A | |||
| 18 | Kjetil André Aamodt |
1989–2006 | 21 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 8 | – | N/A | ||
| Didier Cuche |
1993–2012 | 21 | 12 | 6 | 3 | – | – | – | N/A | |||
| Alexis Pinturault |
2009–active | 21 | – | 1 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | – | |||
| Kjetil Jansrud |
2003–active | 21 | 8 | 11 | – | – | 1 | – | 1 |
Women's race winnersEdit
As of 18 March 2018
| Rank | Ladies | Career | Wins | DH | SG | GS | SL | KB | PSL | PGS | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lindsey Vonn |
2001–active | 82 | 43 | 28 | 4 | 2 | 5 | – | – | ||
| 2 | Annemarie Moser-Pröll |
1969–1980 | 62 | 36 | N/A | 16 | 3 | 7 | – | N/A | ||
| 3 | Vreni Schneider |
1984–1995 | 55 | – | – | 20 | 34 | 1 | – | N/A | ||
| 4 | Renate Götschl |
1993–2009 | 46 | 24 | 17 | – | 1 | 4 | – | N/A | ||
| 5 | Mikaela Shiffrin |
2012–active | 43 | 1 | – | 6 | 32 | 1 | 3 | – | ||
| 6 | Anja Pärson |
1998–2012 | 42 | 6 | 4 | 11 | 18 | 3 | – | N/A | ||
| 7 | Marlies Schild |
2001–2014 | 37 | – | – | 1 | 35 | 1 | – | N/A | ||
| 8 | Katja Seizinger |
1989–1998 | 36 | 16 | 16 | 4 | – | – | – | N/A | ||
| 9 | Hanni Wenzel |
1972–1984 | 33 | 2 | – | 12 | 11 | 8 | – | N/A | ||
| 10 | Erika Hess |
1978–1987 | 31 | – | – | 6 | 21 | 4 | – | N/A | ||
| 11 | Janica Kostelić |
1998–2006 | 30 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 6 | – | N/A | ||
| 12 | Maria Höfl-Riesch |
2001–2014 | 27 | 11 | 3 | – | 9 | 4 | – | N/A | ||
| 13 | Michela Figini |
1983–1990 | 26 | 17 | 3 | 2 | – | 4 | – | N/A | ||
| Tina Maze |
1999–2015 | 26 | 4 | 1 | 14 | 4 | 3 | – | – | |||
| 15 | Maria Walliser |
1980–1990 | 25 | 14 | 3 | 6 | – | 2 | – | N/A | ||
| Michaela Dorfmeister |
1991–2006 | 25 | 7 | 10 | 8 | – | – | – | N/A | |||
| 17 | Lise-Marie Morerod |
1973–1980 | 24 | – | N/A | 14 | 10 | – | – | N/A | ||
| Marie-Theres Nadig |
1971–1981 | 24 | 13 | N/A | 6 | – | 5 | – | N/A | |||
| Pernilla Wiberg |
1990–2002 | 24 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 14 | 3 | – | N/A | |||
| Lara Gut |
2008–active | 24 | 7 | 12 | 4 | – | 1 | – | – | |||
| 21 | Carole Merle |
1981–1994 | 22 | – | 12 | 10 | – | – | – | N/A | ||
| 22 | Hilde Gerg |
1993–2005 | 20 | 7 | 8 | – | 1 | 3 | 1 | N/A |
Most podiums and Top 10 resultsEdit
Career podiumsEdit
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Career Top 10 resultsEdit
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- Note: Only parallel events from (1975, 1997, 2011–2013, 2016) which count for overall ranking, included on this list, are considered as official individual World Cup victories.
Greatest alpine skiers of all timeEdit
Based on ski-database super ranking system (since 1966), this scoring system is calculated using points from three categories: Olympic Games, World Championships, and World Cup (overall titles, discipline titles and individual top 10 results).