Ski racing roundup - End of the 2018 season

All the action from the Olympics and the World Cup finals

Imprint: By Ian Huyton, Updated 4 April 2018

With the racing having finished two weeks ago, we look at the ups and downs of the last six weeks of top-level skiing. The latter part of the season this year was of course dominated by the Olympics. That said, the World Cup standings were still to be decided and Crystal Globes to be awarded to discipline and overall winners.

In many ways, winning a World Cup Crystal Globe is a bigger achievement than gaining an Olympic medal, as it requires months of consistent skiing at the highest level rather than skiing well in just one race. However, most people outside of the sport would see an Olympic gold as the more prestigious win.

The Olympic Games

With both the men’s downhill and the women’s GS postponed due to high winds, the ski racing in South Korea eventually kicked off with the men’s combined on 13th February. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher took his first Olympic gold, having already won almost every other title there is in ski racing. Frenchmen Alexis Pinturault and Victor Muffat-Jeandet took silver and bronze. After another day off for wind, Axel Lund Svindal became the first Norwegian to win an Olympic downhill on the 15th, ahead of teammate Kjetil Jansrud and Beat Feuz of Switzerland. A day later, Matthias Mayer of Austria took the super-G gold medal, while Beat Fuez and Kjetil Jansrud swapped places, taking silver and bronze respectively.

The women got underway on the 15th, with the USA's Mikaela Shiffrin taking a second gold medal of her career in the GS, having won the slalom in Sochi. Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway took the silver medal while Federica Brignone of Italy came in third. Shiffrin failed to gain an expected medal in slalom the following day, finishing fourth behind Frida Hansdotter of Sweden, Wendy Holdener of Switzerland and 20-year-old Austrian Katharina Gallhuber.

The 17th of February would see one of the biggest upsets of the games with Czech snowboarder Ester Ledecka winning the women’s super-G by 100th of a second on borrowed skis. Some television stations had already given the win to Anna Veith of Austria and moved on to other sports, assuming that nobody outside the top twenty could win. Veith was pushed into the silver medal position and Liechtenstein’s Tina Weirather took the bronze. Ledecka would go on to make history by winning the Parallel Slalom gold medal on her snowboard, becoming the first person ever to win gold medals in both skiing and snowboarding at the same Olympics.

Back to more expected results, Marcel Hirscher took his second gold of the games in the men’s GS on the 18th. Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen took silver and Alexis Pinturault bronze. Italian Sofia Goggia’s win in the women’s downhill on the 21st was not unexpected either given her form this winter. Ragnhild Mowinckel’s silver, her second of the games, was more of a surprise. Lindsey Vonn of the USA became the oldest female Olympic medallist with bronze, although without the gold she had hoped for.

On the 22nd, Andre Myhrer became the first Swedish man to win an alpine skiing Olympic gold medal since the legendary Ingemar Stenmark in 1980. Ramon Zenhaeusern of Switzerland gained the silver and Michael Matt of Austria the bronze in the men’s slalom. On the same day, Lindsey Vonn skied out of the slalom part of the women’s combined, after leading the downhill. This left the event open for Swiss skier Michelle Gisin to take the gold, following in the footsteps of her older sister Dominique who took the downhill gold at Sochi. Mikaela Shiffrin and Wendy Holdener took the silver and bronze medals.

The final alpine skiing event of the games was the team event, making its debut at these Olympics. The parallel slalom format saw both men’s and women’s teams competing head to head. Switzerland beat Austria in the final while Norway edged out France to take third place.

World Cup deciders

Ski racing round up February , Chamonix - Centre

Following the Olympics, the athletes moved back to Europe where the World Cup circuits continued after only a few day’s break. The women recommenced in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on 3rd March. Tina Weirather took first place in the super G followed by Anna Veith and Wendy Holdener. The following day’s combined gave a win to Federica Brignone. Michelle Gisin came in second and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova third in a race where only a tenth of a second separated those on the podium. Wendy Holdener’s fourth place was enough to give her the Crystal Globe for the discipline.

Meanwhile, the men were skiing technical events in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. Marcel Hirscher, Henrik Kristoffersen and Alexis Pinturault provided a repeat of the Olympic GS podium, in a race which also saw Hirscher pick up the discipline Crystal Globe. He would secure two more Globes the following day, for slalom and overall, by winning the Kranjska Gora slalom. Henrik Kristoffersen finished second in the race with Ramon Zenhäusern of Switzerland coming third. Hirscher’s achievement gives him seven overall Crystal Globes and ten discipline Globes, second only to Ingemar Stenmark.

After two Olympic silver medals, Ragnhild Mowinckel gained her first World Cup win at the Ofterschwang GS on 9th March. Germany’s Viktoria Rebensburg came second while Mikaela Shiffrin’s third place won her the overall Crystal Globe for the second year running. Racing continued at the German resort a day later when Shiffrin won the slalom as well as the Crystal Globe in the discipline. Wendy Holdener and Frida Hansdotter completed the podium.

The men moved onto the speed disciplines in Kvitfjell, Norway, beginning with the downhill on 10th March. Germany’s Thomas Dressen took his second downhill win ahead of Beat Feuz and Aksel Lund Svindal. The super G on the 11th gave Kjetil Jansrud a popular win in front of a home crowd and also won him the discipline Globe. Beat Feuz came second in the race and Brice Roger, a Frenchman starting at number 49, took third.

Both men’s and women’s tours moved to Åre in Sweden for the World Cup finals. The final week of racing is only open to the top twenty-five placed skiers in each discipline, plus a few selected extras meeting certain criteria. The finals consist of a last race of the season in each discipline to determine the end of season standings and decide those Crystal Globes that are still up for grabs.

The racing opened with the men’s and women’s downhills on 14th March. Lindsey Vonn won her 82nd World Cup race but was unable to overtake Sofia Goggia in the overall standings. Goggia’s second place earned her the discipline Globe while American Alice McKennis came third in the race.

The men’s downhill ended in a tie, with Austrians Matthias Mayer and Vincent Kriechmary sharing the number one spot. Beat Fuez came in third with enough points to win his first Crystal Globe.

In the women’s super G, Sofia Goggia, Viktoria Rebensburg and Lindsey Vonn took first, second and third respectively. Tina Weirather’s sixth place gave her the discipline Globe as her closest rival, Lara Gut, failed to finish.

The men’s super G saw another win for Vincent Kriechmayr, this time without sharing it with his teammate. Christoph Innerhofer of Italy came in second while Aksel Lund Svindal and Thomas Dressen tied for third.

Following its Olympic debut, the team event returned for the middle of the finals. Sweden beat France in the final, while Germany beat Austria to come third.

As has been seen so many times this season, Marcel Hirscher and Henrik Kristoffersen finished first and second in the GS on 17th March, while Olympic silver medallist Victor Muffat-Jeandet came third to clinch his first World Cup podium of the season.

In the women’s slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin put down yet another win ahead of Wendy Holdener and Frida Hansdotter. The same three names made up first, second and third place in the discipline standings after the last slalom of the season.

The previous two races turned out to be the last of the World Cup season for 2018. Strong winds on Sunday the 18th lead to the cancellation of the last scheduled day of racing. The men’s slalom title had already gone to Marcel Hirscher, but the women’s GS was still theoretically up for grabs. Viktoria Rebensburg’s 92-point lead meant she would have had to do little more than finish the race to be guaranteed the top spot. With the race cancelled she was duly awarded the discipline Globe.

The final prizes left to be awarded were the Nations Cups, for men, women and overall. Austria was back on traditional form winning all three, despite a close finish with Switzerland and Italy for the women’s trophy.

After an exciting season and a well-earned break, the athletes will be starting their summer training programmes ready for next winter. 2019 is a World Championships year, with Åre hosting the event this time, so there will be lots of action to look forward to.

Read more from our reporter Ian on his website.